1 – Written after Owen Lowery died

Owen Lowery was British Judo Champion while still at school. Before University, he broke his neck during a demonstration, a fundraiser for an injured Judo player. He was in hospital in Southport for at least two years but lost all movement below his neck and, as a tetraplegic, could continue breathing only with a ventilator motor and tracheotomy. In recent years he lived near Wigan and was a long-time supporter of Liverpool, where he was photographed with Liverpool’s manager at Anfield. He obtained a BA at the Open University, an MA in Military History at the University of Chester and an MA and PhD in Writing at the University of Bolton.  He gave poetry readings at the London Southbank Centre and around the country. He was the subject of a BBC TV programme. His poems have appeared in significant journals including PNR and Stand.

His good humour and calm temperament helped make public life and outdoor activities possible, as well as enabling a frame of mind where poems could take shape. As John Donne wrote in another context, he had ‘faculties / Which sense may reach and apprehend’ and so this ‘great prince’ escaped his prison through poetry and, closer to Donne’s poem, love – the unique love he and his wife Jayne bore for each other. Owen Lowery has ‘left the conversation’, thirty-four years after his Judo accident. At the time of writing, the cause of death is unknown. He had previously come through many a dangerous moment, including a serious ...