The Ian Henery Show
Tuesday 08 June 2021
20:00 to 21:00
Please join me on Tuesday at 8pm and Friday at 7pm on Hope Radio for top notch music, poetry and chat - and a little bit of Heaven - with performance poet and writer Markey Mark Symmonds.
He is a writer and performer of poetry and flash fiction and started making poems as a teenager from music lyrics. The music of Birmingham was a big influence - namely UB40 and Black Sabbath. He later became heavily influenced by Two Tone, Ska and Reggae. He struggled with his disabilities for years and his special educational needs. he struggled to read and write at school.
At the age of 46 he was diagnosed with dyslexia and dysgraphia. he then went back to college and retook his GCSE English language qualification which he passed at level B. This was a new lease of life for him and to know that his disabilities had names and he wasn`t making it all up. he started writing poetry again at a phenomenal rate and set up his own Blog Ste to share his words with the world. The poetry was received well.
The pandemic of 2020 brought an abrupt halt to open mic performances. he took to zoom to perform his work across the country and the world with regular performances in Nashville, Perth and Scotland. he has taken part in the Bradford Fringe Festival and the Melbourne Fringe with his work being streamed into the festivals.
Mark has been published in online journals and in fallen Angel, Scriptstuff and Poetic Vision and Globalisation anthologies.
Mark has just published his first collection - Rhythm of the Ink - The First wave - published by Dream Well Writing Ltd, publishers of dyslexia friendly books. Mark`s book reached 28th in the Australian poetry chart on Amazon.
Go on and treat yourself to a listen