John Twisleton: Poet, Priest, Writer, and Broadcaster

I was brought up on poetry. My dad Greg read me the published poems of his Uncles Tom and Henry. In 2017 I helped organise Tom’s Centenary celebration in Settle and wrote an Ode to Tom. That year unlocked the gift of poetry within me. On occasion, like my forbear, I feel compelled to write. Tom wrote at first by candlelight after a day caring for sheep in the Yorkshire Dales. I type out poems on my phone. That’s when words rise up from within to talk of an occasion, an aspect of life, a place or a season I’ve entered, like the COVID Lockdown. To be a poet you need space in your life, space to ponder. Eugene Peterson speaks of learning ‘the unforced rhythms of grace… to live lightly and freely’. My poetry has rhythm more than rhyme and a variety of stanzas shaped up in the situation. Each poem is dated and I make no corrections from that day onwards. May the poems below inspire you to be a poet as great uncle Tom inspired me. John Twisleton