Rae of Light

I am participating in the Writing Contest: How Writing Has Positively Influenced My Life. Hosted by Positive Writer . Long before I realised it, writing was making my daily grind bearable. I didn't know it was a grind at the time because part of me loved working with the kids I taught. But the constant pressures of an ever changing school system went against my desire to help my students be the best they could be. This can make any dedicated person become a little jaded to say the least. At exactly this point in my life my health gave out on me. In retrospect I see now how it was always meant to be this way. Writing was sitting there on the edge of my bed asking me why I was avoiding the only thing in my life which made real sense to me. When I gave up teaching full-time to devote more time to my writing I believe I helped myself become a healthier, more rounded person. I used to be so tetchy all the time. Now I know I'm a better person to be around.

          Karina Vidler   Karina lives and works in London. Her poetry pamphlet Facing is published by Prolebooks in Caboodle (six poetry pamphlets in one volume). Karina’s poems have appeared in the magazines Between the Lines , Equinox , 14 , Orbis , The North , Prole , S outh and South Bank Poetry . Karina collaborated with a group of fellow writers to produce the anthology Ordinary Magic (Poets Unlimited).  Her poems have also been anthologised in Genius Floored (Soaring Penguin Press), Seeking Refuge (Cinnamon Press) and Journey to Crone (Chuffed Buff Books) Karina will be reading selected pieces from Facing   at The Fat Cat in Sheffield tonight .    I'll be there too so why not join us for the evening if you're anywhere nearby.   What are you reading at the minute? I’m carrying round a Keats selected poems and reading these whenever I get a chance – on buses, trains and today in the toilet at work. I’ve

I wrote poetry long before I became embroiled in fiction. I was 12 and had just started school at St Barnabas College . My English teacher got us to create an anthology of favourite poems. I spent hours trawling through books in the local and school library. I'm talking here about the dark ages before the internet. At any rate, this first dip into poetry soaked the form into my bloodstream through my fingertips as I licked pages to turn them. I didn't always understand the poems but they stirred the embers of a certain something in me. A something my 12 year old self couldn't quite name but felt compelled to rake up into the steady flicker of a pilot flame. And so it began.  While other girls my age were writing in their diaries, I was filling a notebook with poems. Some of these I shared with my mother – my harshest critic. Others I kept to myself because, they voiced my teenage angst – you know, the kind only a teenager can possess.

For several years now it's been a tradition of mine to email friends a list of the things I'd like to receive for my birthday. I've found it saves them time and energy and I don't have any embarrasing regifting episodes. Now that I'm posting on facebook and blogging more regularly I felt it incumbent on me to share this tradition with other people in the world. So here, for your delictation, is my 2015 birthday list     The Ridiculous Universal peace, no war whatsoever, not even on Star Trek The end to world hunger The end to all poverty The end to homelessness The end to abuse, subjugation and exploitation of any kind A philanthropic, gorgeous redheaded carpenter with a brilliant sense of humour, smarts and kindness who totally gets me, tangos like a pro and doesn't think this writing lark of mine is complete madness. A suitcase full of unclaimed wads of big value cash not related to any insideous crimes left a