Earlier this year, I was lazily scanning social media sites when something caught my eye. It was a request for submissions of short stories to a forthcoming anthology, Stories for Homes, with the proceeds going to Shelter, the UK housing charity.

My father endured a period of homelessness during the firestorms of Word War Two, when circumstances caused him and his father to be evicted from their home in Ukraine and left to wander through Eastern Europe with bombs dropping around them – a story I documented in Sliding on the Snow Stone, my debut full length work, published in 2011. And that was why I wanted to be involved in this project – because home is a safe place where people can grow old with their families – everybody needs one.

I contacted Sally Swingewood, the co-ordinator of the project to ask whether she would accept poetry, not expecting a yes, but considered it worth a go. Because poetry can be used to tell a story, sometimes in a straightforward sort of way, at other times perhaps just communicating a feeling.

And I was so pleased when she said yes, because I ended up with a new home for two of my poems, in a terrific collection, side by side with other poems and stories.

Click on the image to view the Amazon listing. It’s worth a look.