DANIEL HEALY

I work as a bookseller in Cambridge.

I was born in 1972 in Aberdare South Wales. Moved to Haverhill in Suffolk aged about 10. Lived in Cambridge for 12 years.
Lived an eclectic life so far. Dropped out of 2 Universities, worked as a Tote Operator (took bets), Apple Picker, Animal Feed Salesman, Newspaper Vendor and Big Issue Seller.

I didn't write for approx 8 years. In the past 41/2 years I've had 212 poems accepted/published in various magazines.

Influenced by the theories behind Imagist poetry and by Objectivism.
In particular William Carlos Williams and Charles Reznikoff. There's a very good piece written by Paul Auster about Reznikoff on the internet called 'The Decisive Moment', well worth reading.http://www.literaryhistory.com/20thC/Reznikoff.htm

I think the poem is an act of communication through simple words and a clear image. To make it as objective as possible in the hope that it becomes as subjective as possible to the reader. The reader then invests themselves in the poem (creating meaning) insamuch as this is possible. The finished poem is then a collaboration between poet and reader.

To show the unrealised fragments of life, the way in which a thing is presented alters our perception of it. We become habituated to the world, we no longer notice the journey to work. A way of taking notice.

Although no matter how objective I try to make the world it is impossible to do so. How we feel imposes its own perceptions and vice versa. The exterior  landscape re-arranges the interior landscape.

In the end, to paraphrase Charles Reznikoff, if I can make you feel and see what I saw and felt then the poem is a success.

Maybe not a sucess, If I make you see and feel what I saw and felt then the poem works. If I can make you invest, superimpose your own image and feelings then the poem is a success.