In retrospect it seems eerily prophetic. Those faces framed in small screens, distant voices interconnecting in the ether. Yet that’s not really it. What interests Giles Perring is something simpler, but more profound than a Zoom event.
Strictly street dancing: a poem for a pandemic
Coronavirus brings powerful new poignancy to a remarkable poetry collection gathered by Edinburgh’s former Makar, Christine De Luca to celebrate “those who daily undertake some of the lesser-seen jobs in our city…night bus drivers, lollipop ladies, binmen…now on the ‘frontline’
Being 90: a poem for a pandemic
‘Perversely, in the wars evoked by politicians it was the flaming of youth untimely snuffed out. Such thoughts emerge from a new poem, written before the pandemic, the reflections of a man in his tenth decade, walking by the river near his home. And wondering…’
Rapid response: social enterprise shows the way
Government could learn from local community enterprises responding with astonishing speed and efficiency to get help and food where it is needed most – including NHS staff on the frontline
A gleam of starlight from the window: poetry for a pandemic
Poems and songs for Earth Hour on Friday March 27 (ICYMI)…”In our time of isolation, whether enforced or voluntary, there’s something comforting in that notion of stars clustering together for so very much longer than human life on earth.”
Your country needs EU – a journey led by poets
Morning. Mourning? Brexit done? ‘It’s more like getting breakfast done, it starts again the very next day.’ We take a Sceptical journey led by poets.
In search of hope for 2020
What message do extravagant fireworks displays send in an age of climate emergency and conflict? Fay Young chooses a poem for peace at New Year instead
No, no, NO Mr Johnson
Boris Johnson’s “serial mendacity” or constant lying is a big issue in this election so we go back to Andrew Neil’s interview of July 12 to highlight how he distorts facts and figures – and he’s still at it.
Five poems for a general election in hard times
A selection of five poems for this general election in hard times. To shine a light on our better nature, to remember how many different people are responding to the urgent issues of 2019 with human kindness, concern, and courageous conscience.
Truth springs from poetry…and dangerous women
For Nadine Aisha Jassat, poetry is activism. She used to used to whisper, “‘I’m a poet’, now I shout it from the rooftops and help others on their journey to shouting who they are, too.”