24th October 2012

LYME REGIS: Poems not available on prescription!

HE’S known as a friendly face at Lloyd’s Pharmacy in Lyme Regis, but local writer Rob Cross’s poems are not available on prescription!

His first collection, “Exposed Grain”, is hitting the streets this week.

The poems cover a huge variety of themes, from everyday experiences such as fighting clutter, stroking a cat and dreading the first signs of autumn, to dramas of love lost, childhood revisited and passion relived.

Readers are invited to browse in a charity shop, to explore email etiquette and to rake over old fireworks on November 6th, while other poems give insight into a relationship affected by Alzheimer’s, and feeling overwhelmed by the demands of Christmas.

Mr Cross said the collection “invites readers on a personal journey which is often intense and sometimes funny”.

Formerly an English teacher in the north, Mr Cross moved to Lyme Regis 15 years ago to be closer to family and is now a familiar face at Lloyds and on the local stage where he often accompanies friend Roy Wooton on guitar. He has written on and off for most of his life, and first started creating songs in the 1970s.

Speaking on his poetry collection, Mr Cross said: “The collection draws on memories and early drafts from long ago and conjure autobiographical scenes, like randomly selected diary pages. Others are more recent compositions.

“I hope they might amuse or move others because they deal with the life that we all slice in different and similar ways.”

Copies of “Exposed Grain” are available from Serendip Books in Broad Street for £5.99.

PICTURE 1: LOCAL POET - Rob Cross.

PICTURE 2: Collection of poetry ‘Exposed Grain’, now available in Serendip for £5.99.