Derrick Porter grew up in Hoxton and why he began to write poetry from the age of thirteen remains one of life’s unsolved mysteries. From the time he first began to write, to well into his thirties, he wrote in ignorance of their being a poetry scene. In his early forties he joined a Writing for Pleasure group tutored by the poet Ted Walter – the first poet he ever met. Ted suggested he send his poems to Envoi, and it was during the editorship of J C Meredith Scott that Derrick`s poems first began to appear alongside mainstream poets. In 2002 he joined the Poetry School where – under the guidance of Mimi Khalvati – he became part of the wider poetry scene. It was from this time that his poems began to appear in magazines such as Magma, Acumen, Interpreter House, he New Writer, Brittle Star, Poetry Review, The Long Poem Magazine, and in two anthologies: I Am Twenty People, and This Little Stretch of Life. He also enjoyed success in a number of poetry competitions.
He holds his time at Enfield Poets – particularly under the watch of Antony & Valerie – as one of his most rewarding chapters.
Not one to idolize or supplicate himself to hero worship there were few road to Damascus encounters. Yet of the few the one that remains the most emphatic was when in his early twenties he was loaned Richard Monckton Milnes The Life & Letters of John Keats, and which still holds an ever inspiring presence on his bookshelf.
John Rety
How a Miracle Happens
The West Bank
The Prisoner
Reading Heavy Water Chenobyl
The Carriers
A Voice Awakened Me
Dawn To Dusk
Sorted
London
On a Whetstone Sharpened
Hi Anthony, could I take advantage of your current problem with uploading poems to the Poetic Voices Library and ask that you delay my most recent – three poems – contribution?
I`ll keep the `John Rety` poem; but likely not the other two which might be thought too backward leaning. Roll on freedom from lockdown and a return to normal socializing.
Derrick Porter