Jodines Biography

Welcome to my Poetry Space.

I was a child of rural New Zealand in the 1970’s and moved into West Auckland in my early 20’s. I have been residing in Cairns, Queensland, Australia since 2011.

I have two adult children, four grand children and a Chihuahua named Miss Lucy Lou aka Lulu.

I have a Post Graduate background in Social Work, Social Policy and Mental Health.

I love Creative Writing and have completed several undergraduate papers at Auckland University where I was privileged to be critiqued by legendary poets and writers such as Wystan Curnow, Emily Perkins, Mike Johnson and Lisa Samuels. I am influenced by my favourite writer, Sylvia Plath.

Writing poetry and prose is my first passion, although I have always been interested in the Arts. I have been a lead vocalist in several working cover’s bands and I love to paint and draw.

I began writing as a form of therapy in my early 20’s, mostly in confessional versicle rhyme, however with age my content and style is less introspective and more open to interpretation. Metaphor’s and metonomy are commonplace.

I began reciting my poetry in the early 90’s in Raw Fish Salad, at Java Jive in Ponsonby, Auckland created by Karen Hunter. After a long break, I connected with poets in 2007 from Poetry Live in Auckland Central where I met the esteemed poet Miriam Barr. My first poems are published in Side Stream edited by Miriam .

I hope you enjoy listening to me paint a picture with words as much as I enjoy writing them! Jx

Jodine Derena Butler