I am an Australian. I was born and grew up in Sydney. I have spent sixteen years as a parish minister in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria and twenty-one as a seminary lecturer.

I began my academic career as a historian but in more recent years I have turned my attention to spirituality, which has been a life-long passion.

I enjoy writing, making furniture and spending time with friends. I have three daughters and five grandchildren. My wife and I live in Selby, in a rain forest in the Dandenong Ranges east of Melbourne.

I enjoy art, particularly oil painting. When I was in my teens I wanted to be an artist but my father argued that making a living as an artist would be difficult. He convinced me and I enrolled instead in law school!

Venturing into my more mature years, I am guided by two principles--following my bliss and flowing with the rhythms of my body.

I have always loved writing poetry. During a difficult period in my life I made the promise to myself that I would release the muse whenever I was moved by a feeling response to life or by strong emotion. Writing poetry, birthed deep in my body, has been both a creative exercise and a catharsis. I am also aware that when I feel most deeply is when I write my best poetry.

I have reached that stage in life that Erickson argues gives us opportunity to contribute to others from the store of wisdom we have acquired. I do not consider my store to be all that capacious, but what I have I offer to others in the hope that it may assist them. Poetry is one means of sharing the runes that are the gift of my journey.

Graeme Chapman