‘Wrest, wrest from this restless life some rest,
Still the ceaseless chatter in the head…’
When not conversing with Locke on thorny questions of understanding and misunderstanding I write poetry. As long as I can remember I have always heard voices in my head. Over the years jumbled thoughts, fired by sometimes overwhelming feelings, have jostled with fragments from poets and playwrights. I enjoy experimenting with different forms – sonnets, villanelles, lyrics. Some of my poems are collected in a slim volume entitled ‘Voices in my Head’.
These poems are attempts to understand a chequered past, embrace a vivid present, prepare for an uncertain future. The Voices speak of loving and hiding from love, of ageing and confronting death, of words and meanings, of sadness and of joy.
A selection of poems from Voices in my Head:
These poems are newer and so far unpublished:
Locke too wrote some poetry, pastoral poems. This was during a romantic period after meeting with Damaris Cudworth as she was then.  Damaris responded in kind. Their noms de plume were Philoclea and Philander. I suspect these poems are likely to be of interest only to those of us intrigued by the complex nature of their long relationship.