The Real Woman Behind The Vixen Of Verse... (redacted 05/02/23)
I am divorced, 68 this year and live with my 2 lovely black & white cats (tuxedo cats), Rio who is 15 years old and Miss Molly who is just 4 years old. 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 lovely neighbour. We also share a garden with the 2 downstairs flats. My cats have access to the garden mornings and evenings but I keep them 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.
On 09/04/2023 I will be 68. 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 22 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 also diabetic, control my high blood pressure and cholesterol with medication.
On 01/04/2023 I will begin my 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 with NaPo/GloMo prompts or not!
THE DAILY HAIKU
This is a site I was asked to join late in April 2020 It is now 2023 and I continue to write a haiku as often as I can, sometimes more than one. It concentrates the mind and helps with focus.
SPOKEN WORD ON ZOOM
SPEAK-EASY and WRITE & RELEASE have been very friendly, encouraging places, for me to regain my confidence.
SHORT FORM POETRY
I love writing short form poetry. The new-to-me Troiku is my latest challenge, but I love triolets, haiku, tanka, landay, Cherita, Cherita Terbalik, shadorma, treochair and more!
Workshops
I continue to attend workshops at Oldham Writing Café. I have contributed ad hoc blog posts to OWC’s FaceBook Page.
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. Thank you.
©The Vixen of Verse, 🦊, 2023
VIXEN of VERSE 
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