You'll want to know, why 'Bear'? I'll tell you first of all that my mother doesn't like it! My original name was Lis Brooks. My best friend gave me the name 'Bear' in 1961 - probably because I raided skips and hugged people, both of which were deeply unfashionable at the time. And I wore a HUGE fur coat and hat. In my twenties I let the name lapse; but it came back to me in the early nineties and has been my legal name for over a decade.

I've been playing music since I was a child, and have been writing and drawing ever since I can remember. Some of my poetry has been published, the most recent being a collection, 'Love Grenade', published by Survivors' Press in 2005. An excerpt from one of my poems is shown below this text. I'm finishing my third book this year (2008); this one is for older children. The previous two were fiction for adults.

These days most of my drawing is for greetings cards for friends and family. I've been looking, not very hard, for a publisher to save me the trouble of distributing them myself.

I occasionally make textile-based hangings; and four years ago constructed a decorated and working fireplace with sun, moon and zephyr. We were sorry to leave it behind in our living room when we moved. When I get my website finished you will be able to see some of the things I make!

As for music, I play folk fiddle and tenor banjo, mostly Swedish traditional music and American old-timey, and English folk music, at one time particularly from the north-east. Now we're in Wales I'm beginning to learn some traditional Welsh music. I love playing in informal sessions, but am not playing with any bands at the moment. I also play djembe a bit, and am decorating a 'journeying drum', as another strand to my life is shamanism: I have trained extensively with Eagle's Wing as a shamanic practitioner.

My lifelong passion has been for the natural environment, since reading Rachel Carson's 'Silent Spring' in 1963. I have a B.Sc. in Environmental Science and Bluegrass music! I also helped copy edit two editions of 'Directory for the Environment'. Although nowadays I'm not active in the peace movement, I was on several of the earliest Aldermaston Marches.

My husband Laurence and I live near Aberystwyth with two cats and a big garden, which we are trying to make as bird-friendly as our last. We moved here from Leicestershire in 2007, and are both learning Welsh.

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Here are the first two stanzas of 'Tempest' written January 2005:

Tonight's trees are singing up a wind,
conjuring it with choral harmony,
summoning it with wild deep sighs.

Eleven green ladies cling together
a chorus line
Tall they cling together to kiss
and sway away, kiss and away
Their green cloaks part to show
dark skirts swirling.

******************

and the first two stanzas of 'First Winter in Wales', written January 2008:


Fling wide the doors! thrust open
every window for winter's searching wind
to rummage through each dark cranny.

Gales sweep the bog – magical marsh
from western sea divided -
hurl smoke down chimneys
slam salt rain at windows
and with knife-sharp teeth cut
through clothes and cracks,
before howling away to the weathermaster:
old Plynlimon's peak.



both COPYRIGHT Bear Loveday Tyler 2008

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