Information for Social Change

Foibles, Frolics and Phantasms

About Paul Catherall

(Auto) Biography

I am a native of North East Wales (UK) with both Welsh and English influences on my poetry. In the past I have written poems for UK and US small press publications and anthologies. Whilst my poems do not fit easily into particular categories or traditions, I think my poems are partly inspired by the economy and precision of the British expressionist poets such as Sylvia Plath, Francis Berry and Al Alvarez.

Some of my poems have illustrations, which often present the accompanying poem in terms of concrete images often representing symbols and metaphors.

My poems deal with a range of themes ranging from the simple to the complex and from the transcendental to the macabre, however one of the most obvious features of my poems is probably humanity's relationship with nature as a complex entity, consider the 'cyborg' in 'Chaos', or the displaced and isolated speaker in the landscape of 'Monoglot'.

I believe that poetry is sadly in decline outside education, and that new innovative forms of poetry are required to delight, thrill and shock the reader in a combined remit to reflect and entertain.

In the more mundane world, I am a qualified and chartered Information Professional, currently working in Web and electronic learning systems for a Higher Education institute in North Wales (UK); I am also engaged in Web-based learning research and have had some of my research-related works published.