Peter Keeble was brought up in London but studied and taught Politics at Auckland University in the seventies before returning to Britain to work as a teacher and then a social researcher. He has been active in poetry groups, including Metroland Poets (Amersham) and Herga Poets (Harrow). Long-term interests in philosophy, science and history are often evident in his poems, some of which use the traditional devices of rhyme and meter, while others adopt free verse. Now retired, he has been a member of the South Poetry Magazine’s management team since 2010, fitting this in with occasional visits to his three granddaughters in Geneva.

His poetry has been published extensively in magazines and e-zines and was commended in Ware Poetry's competition, 2018. His poem 'The Materialist' was longlisted in the Poetry Society National Poetry Competition, 2016.

Published 9th September 2019:
​PASSENGERS and other poems

RRP £9.00
​Our prices 

Peter Keeble’s ‘Passengers and other Poems'
ISBN: 978-1-907435-95-9
​79 pages, 15cm x 21cm
 
This long awaited first collection of Peter Keeble’s inventive, prize-winning  poetry, in part explores scenarios and narratives informed by Science Fiction and wide reading. These include intriguing and convincing metamorphoses of figures from the past brought into a startling present:  Edward II visits Anne Frank’s House in Amsterdam, ancient Greeks find themselves Southgate Cemetery and the reader attends the death bed of the last Centaur.  Other poems explore more personal themes – always with surprising turns of language and expression. A collection of highly imaginative, deftly woven, artfully constructed, and memorable poems.
                            Christopher North

Richard Woolmer reviews Passengers in SOUTH 61 Magazine:

This  first  collection  is  an  inventive  mix  of
dreams,  science  fiction  and  history  with
detours  into  politics,  theology,  philosophy, 
fantasy  and  a  hint  of  existential angst:– 
“Is  this  all  that  we  are?”  he  asks
in  Dr Erasmus Darwin’s Talking Head.

​The  title  hints  perhaps  at  a  poetic  journey  (my  cliché)  
though  in  his  case  more of  an  “Odyssey”  
(without  the  hexameters)  
given  his  imaginative  wanderings
 and  Greek  references.  See  his  thoughts
of  The  Greeks  of  New  Southgate  Cemetery.

We  visit  London,  France  and  India  briefly.
We  even  fly  Halfway  to  the  Moon.  There  is
much  “imagining”  as  in  Protozoa  where
he  contemplates  the  world  seen  through
a  microscope  “wondering  what  we  are
doing  here”.  There  are  “What  ifs”:  I  enjoyed Green Trust 
with its intriguing “What if  one  day…  all  the  green  
drained  away?” leaving  us  “to  puzzle  up  at  
unsatisfactory rainbows”– a hint of colour blindness?
In  Schrödinger’s  Wolf  he  toys  with  quantum  theory  and  
thought  experiment  using  a  well-known  fairy  story.
 

Arty  and Al  is  a  clever  play  on  “Arthritis”
and  “Alzheimer’s”  though  I  needed  help
from  his  notes  on  this.  These  do  provide
useful  insights  and  family  background  eg
on  his  cross  dressing  experiment  in  When
his  Sister’s  Out.  

​Edward in  Amsterdam is  an
enjoyable  historical  fantasy  where  Ed-
ward  II  bizarrely  visits  Anne  Frank’s
house.  It  ends  ominously  with  the  “servants  
heating  the  poker”!

​There  is  humour  as  in  Underground where
a  stout  old  Greek  priest  bursts  unexpect-
edly  into  a  “Meat  Loaf”  song.  Also  some
glimpses  of  family  as  in  Le  Havre  1944,  a
moving  war  memoir  of  his  father.  He  finishes  
appropriately  on  a  family  note  in
Grandchildren  (he  has  3  granddaughters)
where  the  poet  after  all  his  imaginings
becomes at the closing of the day, the tired old badger 
with a tale to be told.

An  intriguing,  at  times  striking,  thought-provoking  read.
                Richard Woolmer