Thomas McColl : part one

Thomas McColl lives in London, and has had poems published in magazines such as Envoi, Iota, Prole, London Grip, Atrium, The Poetry Shed and Ink, Sweat and Tears, and in anthologies by Hearing Eye, Eyewear and Shoestring Press. He's had two collections of poetry published: Being With Me Will Help You Learn (Listen Softly London Press, 2016) and Grenade Genie (Fly on the Wall Press, 2020).  

How did you first engage with poetry?

There were only two books of poetry in the McColl family household when I was growing up: ‘Poetic Gems’ and ‘More Poetic Gems’, both by William McGonagall, so unfortunately, I had no choice but to first engage with poetry via an author widely regarded as being the very worst poet in the English language. But despite (or maybe because of) me being exposed at a very young age to McGonagall’s unintentionally funny dreadful doggerel, I got into writing poetry myself, and at first it really was even more dreadful than McGonagall’s and not even unintentionally funny. Eventually, though, my writing began to get good enough that, by my mid-twenties, I was starting to get poems accepted in reputable poetry magazines, such as Iota, Purple Patch and Psychopoetica, and though no-one was prepared, at the time, to publish my work as either a pamphlet or collection, I persevered, and now, 42 years on from when I first discovered William McGonagall’s books of poetry, I have a book of poetry out with Fly on the Wall Press, called Grenade Genie, that even includes a poem which references McGonagall by name, a poem ironically called The Greatest Poem, and while I do regard it as very possibly being my greatest poem to date, it’s actually about writing the worst ever poem.