Welcome to Danny Barrs – poet, campaigner and commentator

Here are a few reasons  to explain why I developed this blog- none of which will appeal to all readers, I suppose:

• Firstly, there should be no doubt that I want to get my poetry heard and read. I have been writing poetry for many years – since my time at “grammar” school in the early sixties – but it was only when I was sent to prison in 2015 that I realised how important this art form was to me and my entourage, and how important it could be to others. Being locked up for hours and hours every day, once I was actually given the prison conditions that made writing, reading and thinking possible, provided me with the means to concentrate on developing the ideas, skills and motivation to write in such a way as to interest some other people.
• Secondly, I want to make the general public aware of the appalling conditions in prisons in the UK. In particular, it is almost impossible to understand how prisoners are treated if one has not actually been imprisoned. So I will try to use poetry, commentary and the occasional song to create awareness without insisting that everyone actually spends time behind bars.
• Thirdly, I want to share some experiences and ideas that have defined my existence. For example, I have been in the Scientific Civil Service, the British Army, IBM and have run and owned various businesses around the world. I have worked on a Kibbutz and hitchhiked all over the place as children of the sixties tended to do. In terms of ideas I have been a passionate European for many years; indeed very much prior to the first referendum in 1975 and despite the second referendum in 2016.  I am also a vegan, a republican and a humanist. These are positions that I am happy to discuss with any reasonable person, whether they agree with me or not. My time in prison served to reinforce and refine all of these ideas and they show up continuously in my poetry.