I can still remember the night I became a poet . It happened so suddenly . One night before going to sleep I felt a great urge to write . Words flooded into my mind . It was as if Gods hand had turned on a tap of inspiration from in heaven that began to run through my head . I got out of bed and grabbed a pen and a notepad and started to write like a madman . I couldn’t believe what was happening before my eyes . I was writing the most beautiful prayers and poems that you could never imagine .Born was the poet but I was much too self conscious and so reluctant to tell anyone about the transformation from nong to poet . I now had a secret life where I wrote everyday and night . I was very sensitive about this new gift and so always hid my poems and prayers in my bedroom and under floorboards in the house . My life was changing fast and I was experiencing other things no one would believe . One night as I slept in the attic I awoke from my sleep and felt cold and aware of another presence there in the room . I sat up in bed and glanced over at my bedroom window and felt my hair stand up . In the corner of the room I saw the figure of a strange woman dresses in a long shroud . She was there a few feet from me . She was motionless and just stared at me I tried to scream out but my voice was blocked . I was locked in a state of sheer terror and pulled the quilt over my head and just shook with fright for a while . Eventually I had another peep to see if the lady was still there but my night visitor has left .
The next morning I told my sisters and Mum and Dad about the experience of the night before . It was hard to convince my parents about the ghostly intruder .They said it was just a bad dream and there was nothing to fear but one things for sure I didn’t want to sleep in the attic again after that . All my sisters seemed to believe me . Anyhow after a time away my parents convinced me to return to my attic bedroom . Well to my great relief I was never troubled again by the apparition nut it still was hard for me to feel at peace there .As time went on my inspiration flourished and my writing became very prolific . Throughout the entire house in Duneden Park I scattered my poetry . Inside the gas metre box and under the lino , Inside torn mattresses and anywhere I found an empty slot . They where my little treasures and I was very protective of them . I felt they were part of the house like bricks and mortar .
When trouble erupted in Northen Ireland in 1967 . By 1972 the situation was out of control and my parents applied for emigration to Australia . We we accepted and given 2 weeks notice to leave .
I still remember the day the seven of us landed in Sydney with a suitcae in each hand to begin a new life . We arrived at Westbridge Hostel in Villawood in a bus and walked on jelly knees and dragged our jetlagged bodies to the office where we signed in and picked up the keys to our flats in our new home .
We where directed to an area of the Hostel called Gordon , and as we walked off from the administration building we all felt the same . Very homesick and in a mild state of shock , but above everything a sense of freedom and peace captured us . No sound of gunfire ripped through our heads , no bombs where exploding , and there was no sign of trouble ..We seemed to have lost our way to Gordon and stopped a few passers by . What a shock we got when we found everyone we spoke to couldn’t speak English .
In a new country I found myself beginning to write in a completely different way .
A new writer in me had emerged ,
As a poet I read my works at Don Banks Museum . Canberra Folk Festival , The Annandale Cafe , in Churches , schools , on Radio and then I realised I could go a step further with my poetry . It had never occurred to me before that I could use my poetry and write a song .
I could play a few chords and loved music and the suddenly the poet became a songwriter .
The budding musician in me became very self conscious of the level of his skill so I took on some guitar lessons with a man called Fred who had placed an advertisement in the newspaper . Every Friday I went to his flat in Auburn for an hour . I discovered new things like bar chords and tempo . I practiced at home between lessons and discovered a new style of my own . It was an early learning experience with the guitar and one that I enjoyed . After about six months Fred was moving away from Auburn and told me he could not teach me anymore . It was then I asked Fred for his help to buy a new Guitar . Early one Saturday morning Fred and I went into Sydney . We parked the car near Eddy Avenue and he knew the exact shop to go . I picked me a Navarra Electric Six String Guitar and a small amplifier , I went to show off my new instrument to Mum and Dad and everyone was all over them . My sisters wanted me to play them a song and for the first time I felt as if a little stardom shone around me . It was on my second guitar , a fender acoustic , that I found my way with music .I had plenty to say and sometimes there wasn’t enough time in a day to write to down the thoughts that drifted through my mind . Although my experience as a poet and songwriter was very lonely , I was happy to exist there with my writing . Since arriving in Australia my writing ability had grown up through blue periods and a mixed set of circumstances .
I travelled around the country and met people in their hometowns and captured images of Australia as a writer . . I often thought that the world could be a better place because of writers and dreamers like me .
Like you, poetry came naturally to me. I wrote it mostly in high school to impress girls. In high school I also wrote my first short story and found it very lacking. Ended up writing nonfiction for companies and higher education where I became a professor of business and engineering.
While I've always loved music I was a failure with the piano at 7 and the piano accordion at 13. I was attracted to the guitar but never picked one up to try it. Poetry and songwriting go hand-in-hand, so you have done that very well.
My childhood was disrupted only by family moves when I was 7, 11 and 17. But it was always to a better place for my family to live and nothing like your wrenching loss of living in Dublin to go to much more peaceful Australia. But things like that in our lives are character building and give us fruitful thought for writing.
While I've always loved music I was a failure with the piano at 7 and the piano accordion at 13. I was attracted to the guitar but never picked one up to try it. Poetry and songwriting go hand-in-hand, so you have done that very well.
My childhood was disrupted only by family moves when I was 7, 11 and 17. But it was always to a better place for my family to live and nothing like your wrenching loss of living in Dublin to go to much more peaceful Australia. But things like that in our lives are character building and give us fruitful thought for writing.
Ron