Josie Whitehead

JOSIESPOEMS.COM

My name is Josie Whitehead. I'm a retired teacher and also a poet who writes for every age group from one year olds to 101 year olds, but mainly for children and young adults (teens).

HOW I STARTED WRITING POETRY

I've been writing poetry for only12 years. I was encouraged to start writing poems for children well into my retirement, by a class of 8 and 9 year olds at my local primary school. They wanted poems that were written with rhyme, with rhythm/metre and they wanted story poems or pictures painted in words. They wanted imagery that would light up their minds and every poetic element that I could find to put into my poems, ie personification, similes and metaphors, alliteration, assonance onomatopoeia and more. I, who had loved the work of the classic poets of my youth, gave them just this.

A WORLDWIDE AUDIENCE

I have written approximately 1,500 new poems at the moment and, also at the request of the children, I have put them onto a website and they reach every corner of the earth I think, (188 countries of the world Google tells me). Teachers come in their thousands and carry my poems into their classrooms.

SKYPE VISITS

Sometimes I'm lucky enough to be invited to make Skype visits to their classes and this is the best part of my work. I love being among the children, encouraging their poetry performances and answering their questions. They also LOVE me to turn my camera to my window so that they can see the beauty of Yorkshire.

I've had three educational publishers who have taken my poems into their books so far and I know the words travel in print as well as on the internet.

I now have my poems on my website (my own domain) - so it is easy for you to remember JOSIESPOEMS.com.