Oh lord, look up at this mountain I have to climb, it seems so high and so far away, grant me the strength to overcome all obstacles that I see. I never really got them in high school and as a late age Uni student I was quivering in my boots about the first one I had to send in. Memories of thick red lines and the breath of Mr Wilson singed with the smell of pipe tobacco were not sparking off pleasant experiences for my finger tips on the keyboard.

I never really ‘got’ essay writing- I mean writing based on one sentence in a book – I wish I had as it’s about intelligence. if I could weigh the ounces then that it would have cost me to know what I now know against the pounds of slogging through life – when the answers to certain things lay in just writing a couple of essays instead of going on strike. Those lightweight sheafs that might have sat in my mind germinating into arguments and discussions and opinions were stamped on by the Jackboot red pen of WILSON! AAAArgh I just want to get my sizzling fingers and wrap them around his scrawny neck and choke choke choke and see his eyeballs popping out – how he wounded that beautiful muse. His red pen through those beautiful lines was drawn with my blood, crushing the flower of creativity stunting this intellect to into dwarfism…grrrr.

That first essay back from Journalism school of all places- I was expecting at least a few stabs of red but no, just a few comments down the side about my ‘arguments’ Hell – what’s an argument? – What’s a point……. what’s up for ‘discussion;’ this was all new. Given that I left school without even knowing what a sentence was I was pretty proud of that first one and the more and more followed all saying ‘good’ or ‘pass’. The brick wall had been overcome, Wilson’s crowbar tactics had been beaten down – I was on my way to expression, but why had it been such a long long lesson? Now it’s all just tapping on keys, the lines on the page are there for ideas – for writing quickie lyrics to songs- which in a way are like an essay- you’ve got a main point and your verses reinforce that. Pity about those 15 wasted years…..