Note: My 17 BOOKS (Novels, Short Stories and Poetry) are available on AMAZON and KINDLE

MY MUSIC COMPOSITIONS

I am working on many old and new music compositions across all genres.

I now use a Casio MZ-2000 and my new Yamaha Genos V2 76-key Synthesiser/Arranger/Workstations to add to my digital recording studio. After registering my compositions/recordings/arrangements with APRA AMCOS, they will then be arranged as Master Copies, ready for uploading and promotion on social media – YouTube.

Some older compositions can be heard below (“Cat Work”, “Leaving Town” and “Ruby’s Theme”):

MY POETRY

I have created over 200 poems which are included in my titled Poetry Books:

*Frames of Poetry (latest 2025)

*Climate Change Poems

*Shadows, Anxiety and Narrative

*Introverted Moments

Selected Readings of My Poems (read by digital Amie)

NOTE: I have republished my poetry book as “Frames of Poetry“, and republished my “Twelve Selected Short Stories” – as the publisher in India did not sell one book and had listed them with extremely high prices, contrary to our contract. They rely on the author buying copies. This ruined my effort to promote the books for sale around the world and in competitions. These republished books are available on Amazon Books and from the author at P.O. Box 370, South Hobart, Tasmania 7004.

Review of “Frames of Poetry”:  by Dianne Bates (BuzzWords, Author, Poet)

With a sub-title ‘A gallery of chosen poems from my collection,’ this is a compilation of 81 selected poems for a wide range of audiences, including children. Cyberwit says on its AIS, ‘The poet for the most part uses matter-of-fact, everyday words instead of artificial and ornamental vocabulary’, and this is indeed one of the most attractive elements of the collection.

Standing up for issues such as climate change, poverty, prejudice, and social injustice, Nicholson’s poems have titles such as ‘The Last Human,’ ‘Remembrance Day’ and ‘Moment in Time.’ The style of poems varies as widely as the subject matter with prose poems (‘The Promise’), rhyming poems (‘The Writer’), free form (‘Last Autumn Leaf’), cinquain (‘My Dog’), and haiku (‘Poetry Is’).

Overall, in this collection one often sees the versatile poet drawing on his emotional intelligence as he explores his own life experiences and his reaction to the world around him. His social conscience is evident in numerous poems such as ‘First Call’, a prose poem about a child living in poverty. He asks, ‘Why do they live and die this way, while others look away?’ To this he adds, ‘We fight for just equality, freedom from domination. Yet we sacrifice ordinary quiet lives and soldiers from each nation.’ This sensibility is demonstrated, too, in ‘Clouds of Glass,’ with lines such as ‘Cultivating greed without compassion for the hungry poor’, and ‘… deplete everything living, for the greed of man.’

The poet’s personal experience is evident in ‘Denying Self’ which begins with ‘I know a place where we belong – together’ and continues to address a loved one. Alongside romantic poems such as this and poems with a social conscience, Nicholson also writes quirky and humorous poems. In ‘Moon’, he begins with, ‘The man in the moon is standing on his head, /Or maybe it’s a woman, as some modern gals have said.’

‘Musical Life’ is another eccentric poem with lines including (in capital letters), words to do with music such as, ‘I could eat a PIANO FORTE with a TUBA mayonnaise and a FLUTE of champagne to STAVE off my hunger.’

There is no doubt that this collection should appeal to a wide audience, including children. Nicholson has spread his wings wide and with Frames of Poetry adds to his oeuvre which includes 15 novels and non-fiction books for both adults and children.

Copies of the book can be purchased from the Author (stefannicholson@bigpond.com) and from Amazon.

email:   stefannicholson@bigpond.com

How I write my poems:

My poems are mostly written within a small fragment of time, where I may have stopped to think about an idea that seems to require immediate attention. It can happen at any time, even when I am busy, because it takes over the thought process like a day-dream.

The poem is hastily assembled from my immediate thoughts and scribbled onto paper before a quick re-arrangement into logical order. Then, it is put away for later entering on the computer, until I remember it is waiting as a draft.

I never know what thoughts will strike me into writing down a thought poem. However, once the initial writing starts, my mind does not stop until it is a completed draft.

Future editing is kept to a minimum, mainly because heavy editing destroys the life out of the poem and its original meanings. I mention this thought process, to explain that the poems are self-driven in the moment and not created with any preconceived theme in mind. The only exception is the poem about glass, which was written for the 2023 Science Week topic of – well, glass!

Publishing poetry assures that the copyright is maintained by the author. There are many people who steal writing for their own commercial gain (and now A.I. is scouring all literature, looking for a free ride for lazy writers). I am happy for any poem to be used in a non-commercial way, provided that I am credited as the original author.

If you have purchased this book or borrowed it from the library, I hope you enjoy reading the poems and that they may affect you in some way. Now there is a sentence open to interpretation. Please do not send me bills for damage (mental or physical) or else I will write a poem about you (yes, I have a sense of humour).

This book encompasses all my latest poetry. My other 200 poems have been published separately (with less attempted humour). I have also published six novels and short stories.

Quite a few of the poems are written in the song format – noticed by some repetition of lines in the poem. I use a Yamaha Genos 2 Keyboard Synthesiser Workstation to create music compositions for up to 17 instruments, voice and special effects.

I always look forward to good or bad critiques on my books. Then I know my writing has at least been read by someone who has taken the time to write.

Stefan

April 2024