Poetry
Arthur likes to play with words as well as pictures.
Like his art, his award-winning poems are influenced by difficult experiences including incarceration and mental health problems.
He has also won a Silver award and Newcomer award for his prison poetry from the Koestler Trust.
"We war-torn folk, more scar than skin
whose ancient grief had once set in,
whose past is coiled so tight within
still stand against the seasons."
from ‘Children of Misfortune’
“Fantastically controlled meter and clean, strong rhyme… Makes me think of war poets like Wilfrid Owen.” Koestler
Opinion
Arthur is a strong advocate for prison reform and believes passionately in the rehabilitative power of arts interventions. He feels that more should be done to enable offenders to break the cycle, and that creativity is part of the solution.
He has written as guest blogger for the National Alliances for Arts in Criminal Justice and took part in an online Q&A session.