Simon Miles Profile Simon Miles, a poet and a writer, was born in 1956. He grew up in Retford, Nottinghamshire and lived in Bath for the last third of his life. He co-initiated the complementary mental-health project 'Head-Space'. Based in Bath, Head-Space, looked at alternative approaches to mental-health issues, with an emphasis on creativity and healing.He worked as a tutor in Creative Writing since 1984. For seven years he worked as a Creative Writing tutor at Rampton Special Hospital. His interest in mental-health issues led him to take three years training as a counsellor. He also worked for two years as team-leader for a mental-health support group in Nottingham. Simon's poetry was first published 1981 and reading and performing was always an important part of his work. In 1990, 'Reasons Why', his first collection of poetry was published by the Dragonheart Press. He won the Grand Prize in the Yeats Club poetry competition for his poem 'The Column of Endless Remembrance' about the work by the Romanian sculptor Constantin Brancusi. His poetry has been translated into Romanian andrnin 1994 he visited the country and read his work there. A William Blake enthusiast, he organised annual events to celebrate the poetry of this prophetic visionary poet. This has become established as the annual Blake Day Celebration at Tate Britain, held in the Blake Gallery, when poets read from Blake’s and their own work. In 1995 his thoughts about writing and teaching creative writing were summarised in an article in Caduceus magazine. (Issue 31, 'Living Creatively - How do the arts heal?'). He ran the Bath Writers’ Workshop for a number of years and nurtured many fledgling talents. Since beginning ‘The Identity Parade’, a visual arts novel consisting of 365 montaged pages, he became increasingly involved in how writing can be incorporated within the visual-arts. In 1997 pages from the book were displayed in the 'Re-cycle, Re-create' exhibition at the Window ArtsrnCentre, Bath. Later in the year he was commissioned to construct an installation for the Now '97 Festival in Nottingham. 'Empire State Human', was displayed at the Angel Row Gallery and took a period from Simon Paternoster's 'urban-shaman' period and expressed this in a three-dimensional, time-based form. He passed away suddenly in 2005, and his passionate enthusiasm, humour and joie de vivre is missed by all who knew him. A hawthorn was planted for him in the Gorsedd’s grove at Rocks East Woodland. His extensive poetry library will lay the cornerstone for the Bardic Library of Bath. In 2009 an exhibition of his visual arts novel, 'The Identity Parade' took place in a London gallery, thanks to the support of his family and friends. |