2. Poet introduction - Peter Dixon

Peter Dixon is a Poet, Painter, educationist and theatre performer. He has written and published numerous collections of poetry, especially for children. He has acted in stage plays as he was more interested in the Theatre. He was born in London, during the times of the 'Blitz', which were a series of German bombings of London during the Second World war. The word 'Blitz' is German for lightning. He has also worked as a teacher and lecturer. As a teacher, he strived to be unbiased and did not neglect the children who were slow learners. His paintings applied bold and imaginative themes and are placed in the art galleries of London.

 

 

Dixon was a slow learner at school. He found it very difficult to read, spell and pronounce words. He was also weak in grammar. Although he was criticized by everyone for this, he started writing poetry at a very young age. But he wrote poems privately and kept it hidden at the early stage. His poems went on to make a huge impact on everyone around him and earned him appreciation.

 

Dixon, in an interview with 'Springboard Stories', has talked about how he relies on the power of imagination to write poetry. He believes that people can be whatever we want them to be, using imagination. He usually wrote about fantasy subjects and unusual instances like spies and magic cats. He derived inspiration from very common day to day activities, people and objects like tea pots, bags, mothers and teachers.