Human Writes

Performing Poetry
Reindeer Pub, Norwich UK 20 09 20

Hi there!

My name is Ann Margaret Young but posing here under the pen name of Human Writes. I am a proud disabled woman, friend, wife, mother, sister – I could go on but I think you get the picture!

I set up this site way back in 2014 after being made redundant for the second time. The first time was bad enough but this second redundancy hit me pretty hard and quashed any resilience I had built up in my twenty-five years of working. I forged on as a freelance disability equality trainer for a bit (a career I started in the early 1990s) until it became quite clear that the time and effort I had to put in, was having a detrimental impact on my health.

“It’s all about Me!” is what my son said when I picked him up from nursery group 20 years ago and it still makes me smile. He is an only child so everything has been about him from the moment he was born! He has now flown the nest and is making his own way in the world.

It feels strange now, to talk about me. I’ve been lost in motherhood and work for so long! This is my time! Time to find myself again, time to write and be with friends.

I live in Norfolk, UK with my husband, Alan, and our cat Jess. We share our house with a host of spiders and our garden with a very cheeky grey squirrel and friends. If you are old enough to remember the children’s TV show in the UK, Rhubarb and Custard that should give you a good picture. Or you can read my poem, The Urban Garden.

My early posts are quite ‘raw’ but I keep them on here as a reminder of my journey as a writer and a poet – we all have to start somewhere and I dived into prose but I soon discovered that I am more comfortable writing poetry.

I dream of writing at least one book before I die but the more I learn about writing the more there is to learn! I have discovered that to create anything takes a lot of work but also confidence, something that is growing in me, I hope.

May 2020

We are in the midst of perhaps one of the worst global pandemics humanity has ever faced. The Coronavirus or Covid 19 has changed life for everyone around the world and is making many of us face up to the realisation that life may never return to what it was before 2020 – that time has gone and I think, no I hope, that we will emerge from this crises with a new found respect for each other and our beautiful planet. As I say in my poem, Atone

I truly hope that when this pandemic is finally over.

Humanity will learn that global greed isn’t clever

We must understand that this planet is just ours on loan

And promise Mother, every day, to do better and atone.

I hope you will come to know me through my work and that my words will give you an honest impression of the woman behind the poetry but if you don’t have the time or inclination to read every post then can I direct you to an interview I did this year as a Guest Blog:

You can contact me at: annyounng@gmail.com

Take care and stay safe out there!