Denis Martindale

I was born at a very early age, they allowed me to live, but forced me to go to School. That's where I sang hymns from my tiny Songs of Praise hymnbook.

Most of the time, I try to rhyme using the common metre 8 syllables then 6 then 8 then 6 verse style. I've been writing hymns and poems and stories for a very long time and have added 3,000 poems on OZoFe.Com already.

My poems have been in Church magazines and local papers and magazines and on local Radio as well as Christian TV and Radio channels. Some of my poems have also been on the UK Shopping channels like bid.tv, price-drop.tv and speedauction.tv and in one month about a dozen poems were read out on Revelation TV.

I've had some publishing success with Forward Press which is now called Forward Poetry. Their website forwardpoetry-dot-com has a Contests webpage, so I visit and write my poems for these contests.

Poetry isn't cheap. Consider the words of Jesus who said we should count the cost. Consider the paper and pens and the printers and the computers and the Internet costs and the time and the energy it takes to create something for someone I'll probably never meet in this lifetime. The costs soon mount up and the financial returns seem insignificant, but the poetry is part of me and it's a part I want to keep as well as share...

Apart from my Christian poetry themes, I like the magnificent paintings of the wildlife artist, Mr Stephen Gayford and have created a collection of poems about these incredible creatures. Some poems have been read out on the Shopping channels, along with a few romantic poems including The Gifts That Say I Love You and the poem called Somebody Loves You.

My Stephen Gayford website has a search feature to check for all creatures great and small. Google search will also have some results for Denis Martindale and Stephen Gayford.

The poemhunter website lists the recent poems submitted and from these I can check the themes and topics of interest and start new poems which I can share with my fellow poets.

I see myself listed among the top 500 poets, whatever that really signifies is not as important as actually clicking the top 500 poets link and being reminded of who they are or were. Each leaves his or her mark on the world stage, his or her heartprint, to say, I was here... But to share something worthwhile that makes someone's day is easy to do. If we can help change a person's life for the better, then we really have made a difference...

In the meanwhile, keep up the good work and seek the love of God, the blessings of Jesus and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit... because while poetry is eternal, God created eternity...