Spotlight On Writers
Simon Drake
- Where do you originate from?
I am an East London Boy born and raised, E10 postcode, Leyton. I’ve spent 40 years of my life in this beautiful area of London, England, my heartbeat, my home, where my soul resides.
East London, where I was raised by my Grandparents, Dolly and Don Drake, who I love and miss dearly. They were my inspiration, hearts of gold, kind, and caring, my grandmother was a published Poet, and as they say ‘fruit doesn’t fall far from the tree, I believe I inherited my talent from her.
The friends I was lucky enough to be blessed with as a child are still friends four decades later, salt of the earth, through the ups and downs and highs and lows of life, they’ve always been the rocks I’ve needed when times were tough, and believe at times it really was tough.
I was educated here, Newport Jr School, Norlington Secondary School, Leyton Sixth Form College.
I have worked for many years in London, Billingsgate fish market for over a decade, a place and trade steeped in history.
No matter where on the planet I live, East London will always be home.
- What do you cherish most about the place you call home?
The memories, laughter, joy, friendships, relationships, the closeness of community, neighbours looking out for one another, everyone knowing each other on first name basis.
Growing up here, becoming a man from boy, all took place because of the environment I was raised in, the close circle of friends I had, I used to play football with my friends after school, we would knock for each other to come out to play. The school holidays lasted forever, hot summers swimming, ice lollies, games of run outs and bulldog, then nights out going to the cinema to watch movies like Ghostbusters, Batman, and Back to the Future, which are all now 80s Classics.
It’s the memories I have and cherish more than anything, more priceless than all the riches in the world. Those experiences good, bad, happy, and sad, moulded me, making me the man and Poet I am today.
- What ignites your creativity?
Anything and everything, things I see that visually inspire me, pictures, paintings, sunsets, sunrises, music, a beat that makes my soul want to stand up and dance. Or it can be something as simple as a single word. Igniting an idea of rhyme or expression, looking to be put together, a creation of a verse, and or verses that need completion. The beginning of a symphony, that one spark can create such wondrous imaginative thoughts. Emotion plays a huge part in my creativity, unprocessed heartache and heartbreak find their way out, ending up in verse along with deep feelings of love, desire, and wanting, it just depends on how I feel as I put pen to paper.
In 2023, I attended a lot of spoken word events in London, being around creative, supremely talented artists had a knock on effect, impacting my writing in a positive fashion. Spoken word poetry also opened up another avenue of expression, fulfilling dreams of wanting to perform to a captive audience.
- Do you have a favorite word, and could you incorporate it into a poetic phrase?
Narcissist is my word of choice at the moment, unfortunately, my soul seems to seek and search out this characteristic, drawing me towards the dark and dangerous in relationships. Being raised by a narcissist caused untold damage and trauma in my emotional childhood development, those wounds still bleed to this day. Unfortunately, in life, you seek out what you know and are familiar with, whether it be safe or unsafe. And so I found that trait again in relationships with those that should’ve loved and protected me, been honest and open instead, they were poisonously insidious.
The plus side from all of these experiences was I was shaped into helping those as unfortunate as I had been by qualifying as a Gestalt Counsellor, now working as an Addiction Therapist, turning my negatives into a positive.
Below is a poem where I was able to articulate and express myself, freeing a build up of negative trauma. The amazing thing about Poetry is commonality, many others resonate with what a Poet writes, seeing parallels in their own experiences.
LIAR
No one plays the victim better
Than a narcissist that caused the damage
Having such a selective memory
The truth must have been too hard for you to manage
Both knowing why you were ghosted
I have the proof if ever needs be
Emails, texts and messages saved
Of exactly how despicably you treated me
So please write your lies to your hearts content
Share them far and wide
Getting them published doesn’t make it true
Your lies will always be lies
- What is your pet peeve?
As an addiction therapist, I try to keep calm and balanced in all and any situations, but it’s funny how triggers can find you when you least expect them to.
After a little deliberation and soul searching, I feel of all the things that push my buttons the most, my biggest pet peeve is being gaslit, ignored, being misunderstood, misinterpreted, and misquoted.
Nothing is worse than being quoted saying something that you didn’t, and in this day and age, once it goes out into the ether, it’s true whether it’s true or not.
It can’t be reeled back and deleted, it’s out there forever. Society is so quick to judge, there is not a moment’s pause, no time to reflect, questioning, is this actually true? Yet pausing and reflecting, giving yourself a moment to think with clarity, being calm and grounded can help you greatly if in a perturbed state, allowing the truth to eventually reveal itself.
- How would you describe the essence of Simon Drake?
Lazy, talented, a hard-working procrastinator, blessed and cursed with the innate ability to be able to read people, finding you no matter how hard you try to hide.
I can be kind, funny, loving, and caring, I can be distant, angry, and cold. I am an open book written in an indescribable forgotten extinct language. I am an anomaly, a chameleon able to comfortably fit into all and any settings, no matter how uncomfortable they are. I am a work in progress, an incomplete masterpiece. I have hope for brighter tomorrows while wallowing in the blackness of today. I’m blessed and cursed. And I wouldn’t change anything, it is what it is, it was what it was, and it will be what it will be.
The only thing that’s certain in my future, no matter what, is for as long as I’m breathing, I’ll be writing Poetry.
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