Alas the day

Ben Robinson

Hello, I am Ben Robinson, I am a writer and a poet from the United Kingdom. I have a new poetry book out called Alas the day, which is now available to buy on Amazon. Alas the day, my poem, is about oppression, ignorance and hate and the erosion of freedom of speech.

I have always enjoyed poetry and writing. I first began writing poetry around the age of ten years of age. I had a very good English teacher at my first school who was brilliant and encouraged me and truly inspired me. Having an inspiring English teacher really got me off to a good start. I now have thirty books of poetry written. This has taken me three years of work. I find writing very therapeutic, and enjoy writing out in the countryside and I find great inspiration there, and in the people I meet. I especially love the coast, the coast in Dorset, the county I was born has some beautiful coastline and they call it the Jurassic coast. The Jurassic coastal cliffs are filled the with fossils of dinosaurs, and frequently the cliffs collapse revealing fossils which have previously been buried. The cliffs of Dorset are very beautiful to look at but, they are very dangerous, and prone to continual collapses. Many people, including locals, and especially holidaymakers, who are with their families, make the mistake of walking right along the cliff edge, this is incredibly foolish. And as thrilling as it may be to walk right next to the cliff, the cliffs of Dorset are prone to continual collapse, and could cause you to lose your life. Walking along the right beside the cliffs, is incredibly foolish and very dangerous, so please take this as just a friendly word of advice, from someone who was born at the coast. I may write a poem on it in future. The Jurassic coast is a wonderful place for inspiration.

“The Jurassic Coast is a World Heritage Site on the English Channel coast of southern England. It stretches from Exmouth in East Devon to Studland Bay in Dorset, a distance of about 96 miles, and was inscribed on the World Heritage List in mid-December 2001.” – quote from https://jurassiccoast.org

The majority of my poetry and writing I am aiming to write outdoors in future wherever I travel. I wrote my thirty books of poetry, some in the countryside and some at home. There is nothing better for inspiration than going for a walk through the fields and along the lakes and the rivers and streams, and anywhere in the countryside.

I am currently beginning to write eight novels, one of which is called The Devil is a very nice man, about a medieval village, and the inhabitants. One of those is a man who paints his house red, and the villagers get extremely annoyed and call him the Devil, and he as a joke starts wearing horns, and dressing in red, and plays practical jokes on the hapless villagers and on those who are passing through the village.

My favourite poets are John Clare, William Blake (who wrote the poem the Tyger), William Wordsworth, and Lord Byron, and Lord Tennyson. I especially love William Blake for his evocative style.

My favourite authors are Aldous Huxley, Hunter S Thompson, JRR Tolkien, William Golding, Bill Bryson who I love for his writing standard and especially his humour, and Stephen King, who I love for his incredibly skillful descriptive use of language, especially in the book Misery, where he so brilliantly describes an author being looked after, after a car crash, by “his biggest fan”, “his biggest fan” who turns out to be a psychotic lunatic.

I hope this year to release my first novel.

Feedback is most welcome on my poetry and my writing. I look forward to hearing from you. It is a pleasure to meet you all.

Warmest regards and best wishes

Yours sincerely

Ben Robinson