About me:

Reproduced with kind permission from the South Wales Argus: Written by: Mike Buckingham, Title - "As a poet, he's just the ticket."

 Keyvan Ghaemmaghami (pictured) is just as likely to dash you off a love poem as he is to issue a return to Bettws.

 He is the Bard of the Buses, always ready with a cheery smile, and if you don't like one poem there'll be another one along in a minute.

Iranian-born Keyvan, 50, has scribbled literally thousands of instant poems as special favours to his travelling fans and has self-published two poetry books.

"Now I am planning a third to be called Newport - The Heart of Wales," the irrepressible poet says. "Every penny the book makes will go towards building a cancer hospital for the people of the city I love."

The son of a senior official in Iran's postal and telecommunications service in the years before the overthrow of the Shah of Persia in 1978, Keyvan was in Britain studying for a Bachelor of Science degree at Brighton Polytechnic as political turmoil struck at home.

His mother and father emigrated to the United States, where his father died of cancer ten years ago.

A favourite aunt, Aminhe, also died of the disease.

 I'd written some juvenile things in Persian which didn't add up to much but I started writing poetry in earnest when I began on the buses 18 years ago.  Even after almost 20 years there is nothing else I want to do. It keeps me close to the people I write about and for.

 Wherever I'm driving, anywhere in the city, people will climb aboard and tell me their stories. Sometimes it's about a boyfriend or a girlfriend, or perhaps a bereavement, but I can usually come up with a poem to comfort the person.

 "I write for youngsters of eight who are barely old enough to greet me as they climb aboard, and for people in their nineties."

 Hardly surprisingly, Newport Transport, Keyvan's employer, is delighted with a driver who brings a touch of culture to the everyday business of commuting.

 The bus company has a pro-arts policy which a couple of years ago resulted in one of its double-deckers becoming a mobile gallery courtesy of the Canadian artist William McClure Brown.

 "I don't want to be a famous poet out of personal ambition," says Keyvan, "I want to be a poet of the people and the means by which a lot of money is raised for a Newport cancer facility."

 "My poems are about the people and the concerns they have be they problems with love or anything else. I drive all the routes throughout the city and because of my poems I have become a family friend to thousands of people.

 "I have written all the poems to go in my third book. All I'm looking for now is a publisher who will produce the book for a reasonable price. Apart from paying the printing costs, every single penny will go to Cancer Research."

 Keyvan's son, Aram, 20, is studying for a science degree at Portsmouth University.

His daughter, Leyla, 26, has qualified as a graphic artist. As a girl she illustrated one of his books.

Anita, Keyvan's wife, keeps their Somerton Road home and is a keen supporter of her husband's literary activities.

My poems are about the people and the city I love." says Keyvan. "I was loved at home and I would like that love to go on until I die. I was born in love and I will die in love."

 "The more love I can give, the better," says the poet with a mission, simply, but with feeling.