HOME Page – Poetry as Therapy (updated 04/04/25)

The Real Woman Behind The Vixen Of Verse... (Updated 13/03/25)

I am divorced, and my 70th birthday is fast approaching ( 09/04/25)7. I  live with my 2 lovely cats, Sooty, my black cat who I acquired from the neighbours who is 7 years old and Miss Molly who is also 7 years old, she is a cute black and white, ( Tuxedo cat.)  We live in Oldham which is in Greater Manchester. A former cotton mill town during the Industrial Revolution, it has lots of green parks, and where I live, it is near to the Yorkshire border and the lovely countryside of Saddleworth.

Sadly, now there is a lot of unemployment among the young population and the town badly needs some levelling up investment. I live in a first floor flat (apartment) with 2 bedrooms, lounge, kitchen with dining area, bathroom and utility room. I share the communal staircase with my neighbours. We also share a garden with the 2 downstairs flats. My cats have access to the garden mornings and evenings.  Now, both Miss Molly and Sooty stay in overnight.

Back in 1985 I fled my marital home with my 2  sons following 2 years of domestic violence.

In 1998 my younger son, Evan Kenneth Paul Crossley died from a heroin overdose.

I am a British Army Veteran of the Northern Ireland Conflict.

I have lived and worked in Spain and speak the language fairly well. I still translate business letters for a friend. Sometimes I even write poetry in Spanish. I attend a great class at a nearby library where I study at a Spanish Improvers class with the lovely George.

I was born in 1955 so I am one of the Waspi Women who were robbed of in my case 2 years of my pension when the Tory/Lib Dems renaged on their promise to move the pension age up by 2 years at a time.

I am riddled with osteoarthritis and spondylitis and have been in a lot of pain for the last 23 years. I have had 2 new knee replacements, which have helped tremendously. Now, I pace myself most of the time and have found different ways of controlling the pain. I am now back to being pre-diabetic, controlling my high blood pressure and cholesterol with medication. I was recently diagnosed with sleep apnoea, and after a five-month wait, I have finally obtained my CPAP machine!

On 01/04/2024, I completed  NaPoWriMo (National Poetry Writing Month) or GloPoWriMo (Global Poetry Writing Month) which is in April. It is dedicated to writing a poem every day in April to a prompt.

THE DAILY HAIKU

This is a site I was asked to join late in April 2020. It is now 2025, and I continue to write a haiku as often as I can, sometimes more than one. It concentrates the mind and helps with focus.

CHERITA POETS ONLINE

Is a  group I ‘ve joined and is where I get to share my Cherita and Cherita Terbalik poems.

SHORT FORM POETRY

I love writing short form poetry. The new-to-me Lai Poem is my latest challenge, but I love triolet, haiku, tanka, landay, cherita, cherita terbalik, anserine, shadorma, treochair, sijo, limericks, troiku and more! Through this blog, I have met online with the lovely and talented Susi Bocks and have had poetry published in two of her anthologies.

Workshops

I have finally managed to return to Oldham Writing Cafe very recently. It was lovely to see and catch up with Carol and Wendy. Wendy gave us a brilliant workshop from which I wrote a very poignant Triolet called Father and Son.

OPEN MIC

I have returned to Open Mic here in Oldham, which the Manchester group Commonword/Cultureword have facilitated. I have also done a spot at the Fox & Pine which I hope to repeat in the future and I hope to get to Word Central too.

HACK OLDHAM

I am a co-worker at Hack in Oldham. I rent out a desk where I can come and go between 10 am to 5 pm on weekdays. I am hoping to return to Tai Chi when I feel better.

I hope you enjoy all the features of my blog. Please go to the contact page and fill in your email address, and let me know what you like and what you don’t. If you are a poet, why not consider a spot on my guest poet site? Just email me at carolyncrossley6@outlook.com with GUEST POET in the subject line. Thanks for reading.

©🦊VixenOfVerse,  2024