I wasn’t interested in English or poetry when I was going to school, in fact I wasn’t interested in going to school and couldn’t wait to get out of there. So it probably came as a bit of a surprise to me a few years ago after reading some old poetry by local poets who have passed on to the next world. I was amazed at the quality of their poetry for people who had limited education to produce such works. I decided to try write a poem myself and that the subject of the poem would be Castleboro, the area that I am most familiar with. When I had it completed I got good feedback from those who saw it. I gave a copy of it to a poet from the north of the county and after he read it he said “ they’ll be no stopping you now you have been bitten by the bug” I laughed at the time but on reflection he was right, Thanks Ned!