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That's me on the left with Martin Barkley, the then chief executive of Mid-Yorkshire Hospitals, who hired me.
Pandemic Poetry: How the lockdown gave me the chance to write about Covid
For the past few months I’ve been Poet in Residence in Mid-Yorkshire Hospitals.
Back in 2019, I had treatment for prostate cancer. As a gesture of thanks to the oncology nurses, I sent them a poem about Pinderfields Hospital, which I had written when I was Poet in Residence there in 2006, when the hospital was being rebuilt and there were big changes afoot.
As a result of that, Mid-Yorkshire hired me to write a new series of poems about the fight against Covid. I travelled round the hospitals – Pinderfields, Pontefract and Dewsbury – and a therapy outpost in Castleford. I talked to about 50 people – doctors, nurses, therapists etc – and produced The Healing Season, ten poems which are now displayed on the hospitals’ website and social media accounts and which will eventually be hung up to decorate their walls. If you go to
https://www.midyorks.nhs.uk/news/fighting-the-pandemic-with-poetry-1985
you can read the news story, then click on to the link below it, which allows you to read the poems.
Back in 2019, I had treatment for prostate cancer. As a gesture of thanks to the oncology nurses, I sent them a poem about Pinderfields Hospital, which I had written when I was Poet in Residence there in 2006, when the hospital was being rebuilt and there were big changes afoot.
As a result of that, Mid-Yorkshire hired me to write a new series of poems about the fight against Covid. I travelled round the hospitals – Pinderfields, Pontefract and Dewsbury – and a therapy outpost in Castleford. I talked to about 50 people – doctors, nurses, therapists etc – and produced The Healing Season, ten poems which are now displayed on the hospitals’ website and social media accounts and which will eventually be hung up to decorate their walls. If you go to
https://www.midyorks.nhs.uk/news/fighting-the-pandemic-with-poetry-1985
you can read the news story, then click on to the link below it, which allows you to read the poems.
Read a Story, Hear a Story
Go to Showcase page to read the story Happy Returns and hear the podcast version of the story The Woman Sitting Opposite, both from my collection 20 Stories High. Then rush out and buy the book, folks!
