Derek is a Scottish poet from a small working town called Coatbridge. He moved away to Cumbernauld when he was 11 and then returned in later life, where he still resides today. This is his first venture into writing anything, let alone poetry. He has worked all his life in the haulage business, and this is all very much far removed from his normal working life. He draws on personal and observational experiences, as well as his imagination, in his poetry. He started writing these poems while in a severe bout of depression, first of all to explain the pain he was going through to others, but he found the more he wrote, the more therapeutic it became. He hopes that some of his poems will help others who suffer from this illness believe that anything is possible, no matter what.