Hello Bob.
I'm with Lovely and Xnine in that I haven't a clue how I came across this site in the first place. I tried looking at my early posts to see if that might give me a clue -but with not much luck. I suspect I simply Googled something like 'stomas' and browsed through whatever presented at the time.Â
Some of my very early blogs were around the subject of 'Bullying' so, rather ironically, I may well have been attracted to the lively discussions that were prevelant at that time, where certain members were being unecessarily abusive to each other. Having studied bullies and bullying for many years, I would feel well-placed to offer an objective perspective on such matters, and the opportunity to do so in rhyming verse would have seemed almost irresistable.
However, finding the site is one thing. Reasons for remaining as an active participant is quite different and should perhaps be considered alongside the the concept of joining. My own reasons for staying are multi-faceted (as usual). But it has to do with listening to people's stories about adversity (including my own) and trying to document those as accurately as possible in rhyming verse. This tends to give a slightly different perspective to some otherwise unpalatable situations and circumstances. In one of my early books on using rhyme as a therapeutic tool, I wrote several verses to try to explain the process. One of these I will reproduce below so that You may get the flavour of the concept and the motivation for writing this stuff.Â
Best wishes
Bill
INVERSE FEEDBACK - (THERAPY?)
First, I feel I should be there
so nothing goes unheard,
then I can listen with great care
to each and every word.
Next, I want to empathise.
To grasp just how you feel.
So that I might realise
which things you think are real.
When you've shared your inner soul,
your troubles and your woes,
I will ponder on the scroll
and then convert your prose.
What you felt and what you said
might seem a bit perverse,
when all those words are now instead
fed back to you in verse.Â
Reframing and restating viewsÂ
that you have shared with me,
creates an image that renews
my faith in poetry.Â
               B. Withers (1992)