Portraits of Poets - John Killick
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John Killick was a teacher of English and drama for thirty years in schools, colleges, adult education centres and prisons. He has been a writer all his life, and his first book of poems was Windhorse (Rockingham, 1996). He has contributed poems, essays and reviews to a wide variety of publications, including Poetry Review, Times Literary Supplement, Times Educational Supplement, PN Review and ‘The North. He was a small press publisher (Littlewood) from 1979 to 1989 bringing out over 60 titles. He was founding secretary and then chair of the National Association of Writers in Education. |
In 1989 he went freelance as a writer; he worked in a women’s prison, a hospice and then concentrated on older people. In 1993 he began work on communicating with people with dementia. He was Writer in Residence for Westminster Health Care from then until 2003, and Research Fellow in Communication through the Arts at the University of Stirling from 1999 to 2004. In later years he has been Dignity Care Poet in Residence for Cambridgeshire Libraries, Writer in Residence for Alzheimer Scotland and Poet in Residence for the Courtyard Centre for the Arts in Hereford.
He has given lectures and workshops in the dementia field all over Britain and in many countries. His publications include many articles and chapters, and seven books, most recently Dementia Positive (Luath, 2013), The Story of Dementia (Luath, 2017) and Poetry and Dementia (Jessica Kingsley, 2018).
John has co-written with Myra Schneider two creative writing texts: Writing for Self-Discovery (Element, 1998 and Barnes & Noble, 1998) and Writing Your Self (Continuum, 2011). Onlyness: Exploring the Predicament of the Only Child is forthcoming from Luath. His most recent collection of poems is Inexplicable Occasions (Fisherrow, 2016). He has edited Selected Poems of Anna Adams Open Doors (2014); Like Life (2015) by Stanley Cook; and A Night of Islands by Angus Martin (2016).
He has given lectures and workshops in the dementia field all over Britain and in many countries. His publications include many articles and chapters, and seven books, most recently Dementia Positive (Luath, 2013), The Story of Dementia (Luath, 2017) and Poetry and Dementia (Jessica Kingsley, 2018).
John has co-written with Myra Schneider two creative writing texts: Writing for Self-Discovery (Element, 1998 and Barnes & Noble, 1998) and Writing Your Self (Continuum, 2011). Onlyness: Exploring the Predicament of the Only Child is forthcoming from Luath. His most recent collection of poems is Inexplicable Occasions (Fisherrow, 2016). He has edited Selected Poems of Anna Adams Open Doors (2014); Like Life (2015) by Stanley Cook; and A Night of Islands by Angus Martin (2016).
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INSIDE AGAIN
I’m giving my name in at the gate I’m handing in my tally I’m receiving my keys I’m breathing in my nostrils that familiar stale smell. Inside me there must be a kind of longing for the bars that exclude challenge the rules that inhibit choice the dress that proclaims deference. I’m seeing the danger signs and now I’m up on the Wing the most alarming thing is how my mouth keeps opening and speaking the lines. |
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