Sunday, February 19, 2012

John Anstie ~ @poetjanstie

John Anstie
Poet, Blogger, Photographer




John Anstie is a Poet, Blogger and Photographer having a treasure chest filled with a lifetime’s pictures; a developing interest in dramatised ‘moving’ pictures with a multi-media approach to creative art, including, of course, poetry. He also sings tenor in a mixed voice choir. He originally graduated with a Masters in Metallurgy and became a Chartered Engineer.
As a teenager in the sixties, there were small signs of creative intent: an unschooled love of the piano, followed by the ubiquitous guitar and his tendency to write the occasional song or poem. Played Rugby Union for over twenty years; an insane game that he claims kept him sane!
He spent thirty-five years in a creative desert, pursuing a career and raising a family. Working in Metallurgy for only ten years, he soon realised he was a reluctant metallurgist and so pursued a more commercial destiny. The ‘desert’ was not, however, without its benefits; a good wife and three healthy children were what sustained him then and, directly or indirectly, continue to provide one of the core inspirations for his writing now. It was, eventually, refreshed with rain in 2009 by the birth of his first grandchild, which moved him to write a poem. This opened a door and he hasn’t stopped writing since.
John’s writing is inspired by strong family, close community, and a desire to see an end to political injustice and extreme economic inequality; it is also concerned about the shallowness of life for large sections of an affluent generation and about a reluctance or inability for them to spare much meaningful thought for the human condition, in a world that is rapidly filling up with an increasingly stressed people and declining resources.
He has not yet published a collection… but watch this space!

‘Forty Two’ : (a blog on ‘Life, The Universe & Everything’) : 
Twitter:  @poetjanstie

6 comments:

  1. I didn't mention the word 'Musician' above, because I thought that would be pretentious, but since I did mention the word 'Photographer' then perhaps I should also so 'Musician', but my status in both is very much the same: Amateur with a capital 'A'.

    And so we go on...

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  2. You're much too modest, and that's with a capital "M"

    eden

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  3. ...and you're now famous John..I was speaking to one of the young guys who were on a weeks Christian mission to London and just happened to mention I was a poet..as one would...when he said were down from Sheffield..I said I know a great poet up there and mentioned your name which drew a blank but when I said poetjanstie on twitter he said oh I've heard of him..Fame indeed.

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    1. Good heavens! Did you get his name? I'd like to be able to say that I've got more than one fan in Sheffield... :-|. Thanks for looking in, JS.

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  4. ...famous, eh! You didn't get his name by any chance, JS? Could've been that fellow I bribed to spread my name about the big smoke... ;-)

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