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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).


                                       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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  • home
  • News and Reviews
  • Events
  • Poetry Competitions
  • Contact us
  • Portraits of Poets
    • Veronica Caperon
    • Jean Stevens
    • Ann Pilling
    • Jean Harrison
    • Joan Butler
    • Richard Morwood
    • John Killick
  • Link to old website