The Dance of Life

The Dance of Life is the second book of poetry Joan Humphreys has published. Her first book of poetry was published in 2018 called 'The Song Sang'. Some poems in that book have been included in this one as they were written about events from her own life. She spent most of her working life in music education, both as a teacher and as an advisory teacher in Berkshire schools. As she neared retirement she decided to take up writing poetry. She had always enjoyed reading poetry but due to an unfortunate experience at school, she believed that she was unable to create it. However on retiring she joined a poetry group and found that she began to enjoy writing poems herself. Being a musician meant metre came naturally to her, but before long she discovered that there were as many different forms of poetry, as there are in music .She also joined a Life Story group, where she began to write about her own life, using poetry to illustrate various experiences that had occurred during her life. It then seemed that these poems could tell her life story themselves. So this book began to evolve. She finds writing poetry very therapeutic. In choosing the poems for this book and writing others to add to it, she has gained an understanding of who she was and who she has become. The poems reflect the journey she has taken through life from a young child to her retirement years.