”On a previous reading trip to Finland I was asked the question ‘why do you write’ by prominent Finnish Poet Risto Ahti. A good question, to which the only reply could only be, ‘because it`s the language I speak’. It is a way of sharing the multi-layered conversations I have with myself in response to emotion and experience. It has been shaped by a career in the theatre, time in Labour Party politics and the highs and lows of family life. It comes from lived experience rather than from an academic interest. It is greatly influenced by a close analysis of how language works – especially in the theatre with all its subtexts and unwritten emotions – and reflects my core beliefs around pacifism, equalities, honesty and the reason we make art. I strongly believe in art`s redeeming power, its power to change hearts and minds and to identify the shared emotions that bind us and make us human. Much of my work has been stimulated by travelling, and emersion in the history, ‘story telling’ and cultures I was seeking to understand. I have written poetry from an early age, blessed by a Father who despite his working class origins loved literature and poetry, a love he passed to me; and a Mother who thought a regional accent would be a social impediment which inadvertently distanced me from my origins, but opened up worlds I could never have imagined.”
Chrys Salt
www.chryssalt.com
