The
following was written as an introduction to my first poems and was written
on 6th January 1972
To anybody
reading this book the poems inside may seem a mere hotchpotch of ideas. To
me they are something else. Many represent my feelings towards different
ideas and different people at different phases in my life.
The order
roughly represents the order in which they were written although this is
not followed too rigidly in places.
The first
poems do represent my first serious writing attempts. They may not be
brilliant pieces, they may not even be good but they are honestly written
from the heart. Surely this is the only real way to write poetry, or at
least it is the only way that I know.
Many of the
people talked of are not known. They come from my own personal
experiences. A few even figure in my imagination. Some of the places are
fictitious but nowhere have any names been changed to protect the
innocent.
Some of it was
written quickly and for this I do not apologise because it was written to
represent what was happening to me at the time. Other poems were written
with thought. Others have been changed slightly but their meaning remains
the same. After all isn't it the thought that counts initially?
The contents
of this book represent many enjoyable hours, especially during 1971 when
the idea came to me not just to sit on my backside and let the world pass
by but to get inside that world and look at where I am.
I like to
think that they represent a broad section of my world or the outside world
as I know it. Whilst saying this I readily acknowledge that my knowledge
is extremely narrow. I am always trying to improve this but I suppose
nobody can know everything.
Well I hope
that explains my intentions rather more clearly and if you still feel none
the wiser after reading them I can only apologise.
I just hope
they bring somebody as much pleasure as I have had writing them.
Some were
mistakes, some quick thoughts but they are all my own effort and it is
because of this that the collective group is entitled: Poems from Mistake
or straight from the pen.
© Peter Steward 1972
This
second introduction was written on 19th June, 1973
Sitting in the
front room of digs at Lowestoft I felt the need on a slightly chilly and
wet June night to write a second introduction to my poetic thought.
I thought it
apt because of certain changes in both my mind and position and also my
writing.
I feel the
stay in Lowestoft from July 1972 to July 1973 (almost 13 months) helped to
clarify and simplify my poetry.
With a year's
journalistic experience behind me I no longer felt like writing poems so
complex that even I could not understand them. I gave up trying to put the
world right and started looking deeper at myself, trying to put myself in
order.
Gradually I
got out of the bad habit of sitting down in a deliberate manner with blank
paper and forcing something out. Instead I let ideas whirl around inside
my head until I felt I had to write them out. Often this meant there were
weeks when nothing got recorded on paper but I became sure that when
something was written down it had a meaning. In fact through it I feel I
became a slightly better person.
On a much
wider point I feel that my poetry shows three distinct periods. The first
starts from the first recorded poems, which indeed today cause me acute
embarrassment, and carry on until I begin the metaphysical
"Light" poetry with "I Came Across A Pillar."
It is
difficult to explain that at that time I suppose my poetry matured
slightly and I felt a definite change in direction.
The second
change was very much less marked but I feel it occurred about "The
Future of Man" which coincided with the beginning of my period in
Lowestoft.
Perhaps it is
all in the nature of a progression. After all progression is something we
must all go through. Perhaps in six months time I will look back on the
poetry I am writing at the moment and it in turn will embarrass me.
© Peter Steward 1973
A year at Lowestoft over and a temporary stay in Norwich as I approach my
21st birthday. Suddenly a week when confidence grew and I stuck two
fingers up at the world.
©Peter Steward 21st August 1973.
A move to
Cromer and life is suddenly very much more complex. I longed for an
intimate relationship and problems and now I have got them I am not sure I
can handle the situation.
©:Peter Steward 10th March, 1974.
