Angela Browne loves her family. So much so, she has written a collection of poetry in their honour.

The 48-year-old is hoping that her latest book, The Light Switch, will remind locals of a time when Island life was much simpler.

She also wants to inspire the community to tap back into those old-fashioned family values.

“The Light Switch tells a story about how things were when I was growing up and compares that to how they are now,” she said. “I mentioned in my poems how the culture is changing and how children are different today.

“In my day, we never argued with our parents or shouted at them like I see some children doing. We were corrected by our parents and that shaped us into responsible citizens, but if you spank your child today it’s considered abuse.”

Mrs Browne has been writing poetry since she was a little girl. She never imagined that she would publish her work and share it on a larger scale, but then encouragement came from a few people in her inner circle. She decided now was a good time to act.

“The first nudge came from my pastors at Better Covenant Christian Fellowship,” she said. “Then came a push from some people I’ve written poetry for in the past, like loved ones.

“I was also inspired by the recent birth of my first grandson, so immediately I wrote a poem for him that we will have to save somewhere for him.”

A few of her poems reflect on the increase in violence in Bermuda and how much local culture has been diluted.

She recalls waking up as a child on Good Friday to find the skies full of vibrant paper kites.

“Now when you get up you can count the kites on one hand and that bothers me because I feel our children are missing out on things we were blessed with,” she said.

“They don’t play with marbles, jump rope or play with jacks anymore. Everything is electronic. You even have four-year-olds operating an iPad. In my opinion technology has its pros and its cons.”

Mrs Browne said she wanted her poems to spark an “awareness” in attitude and behaviour.

“I would love to see families become more close-knit and more supportive of one another,” she said. “My family isn’t perfect by any means, but the blessing with us is we spend time together even when there might be an issue or problems. We are always seen sitting outside, laughing and talking.

“We are determined to keep that going. We have a wonderful relationship and are very supportive of each other.”

She said no birthdays in her family passed without being celebrated.

“We don’t have any big dinners or anything, we might just make a cake and get some ice cream, but as long as we are together then we’re happy,” she said.

“Tomorrow isn’t promised to anyone and I wouldn’t want any of them to pass and have to say, ‘I wish’.” Mrs Browne’s first collection of poems, Kaleidoscope, was released last summer.

It ended up being a family project. The book includes illustrations from her two children, Tyahn, 24, and Semora, 19. Her daughter was also able to collaborate with her on one of the poems.

“Kaleidoscope is actually a compilation of poetry I’ve written since I was a little girl,” Mrs Browne said.

“I just wanted to have somewhere where my children and grandchildren could look back and say, ‘my mother or grandmother wrote that’.

“It took me a little while to get everything together. I went through this at least a dozen times as I didn’t want to expose myself too much, so I had to pull some bits out.

“I also wanted to make it so that other people, who don’t know me, could also relate.”

She considers literacy to be extremely important and has always encouraged her children in reading and writing.

“My husband, Noel, calls me the English teacher,” she said. “I don’t think I’m perfect with my grammar, but communicating well is very important to me.”

• Both poetry collections are available at Brown & Co for $31.45. Mrs Browne will sign copies at the Reid Street store on Saturday between 1pm and 3pm.