Hello, I'm Marjorie

Hello everyone, I'm Marjorie Pickering. Last year I came back to England after living in Amsterdam for rather a long time. My husband Jack was working there. I'm not sure exactly what he does as it's sort of classified. I mean, that's the way he describes it.

Anyway, while we lived in Amsterdam I was on my own quite a lot, so I took a number of evening classses - Madrigal singing, Medieval History, Yoga, Pottery and Creative Writing. It was this last class that launched me on my career as a poet.

We were always told to write about what we know so I started out writing, mainly about my little cat Herbert and Jimmy the Goldfish.

this is Jimmy. Herbert was hiding somewhere. Maybe I will be able to show you a photo of him later.

Here are my first two ever poems:

My Little Cat Herbert

Oh Herbert, how furry you are

I wish you hadn't got squashed by a car

Dear Herbert, how furry you were

How sad you don't purr

any murr (more)

Jimmy the Goldfish

Splish, splash I see you swim

My lovely, shiny, fishy Jim.

What a pity I introduced you to Herbert.

Well, that is quite a long time ago now - I have written lots and lots more poems since then. Now that I live in England I have been able to sign up for writing courses at the William MacGonagall School of Poetry and even perform on stage sometimes! I like to experiment with different forms, from Haiku to Sonnet, Villanelle and many more.

I will share more of my poems in the next blog and I hope I will build up what they call a 'fan base' and get even more people coming to my poetry readings.

It's all frightfully jolly!