Matt Black Supplies the Demand for Poetry at Tile Hill Library - 3rd August 2023
Matt Black wrote poetry on demand for people in the library at Tile Hill, and popped in to read a poem to the young children at rhyme time.
What the library staff said:
"Everyone said it was very good. People seemed very pleased with their poems. It was a pleasure to have Matt in the library."
Poetry Workshop for Young Poets, Central Library on Saturday 15th July 10.30am with Emilie Lauren Jones and Hawwa Hussain
This workshop was designed to offer young people the change to think about their applications to become the next Young Poet Laureate of Coventry. The attendance was low, but Emilie and Hawwa gave top-notch support and got a 10 out of 10 for the session.
What Emilie said:
The participant said he'd benefitted from the personalised feedback and the opportunity to discuss his poetry with poets. We directed them to a few other organisations that specialise in supporting young poets as well as suggesting places he could send his work for publication as a teen. Again, they said this was helpful. He enjoyed the prompts and left with a poem that he was going to continue editing."
Coventry Poet Laureate Workshop with Emilie Lauren Jones - 1st July 2023
This was a workshop held to support people thinking of applying for the Poet Laureate position 23-25. Emilie encouraged workshop participants to write new poetry on the theme of 'Refuge' (the theme for National Poetry Day 2023). She also spent time feeding back on poems which people said they found very helpful. Many poets were inspired to continue working on their pieces and editing after the event.
What the library staff said:
"The quality of the poems they wrote was really high!"
What Emilie said:
"The library staff were brilliant and always go above and beyond to make sure sessions run well."
More please was the concensus!
Emilie Lauren Jones visited Bell Green Library to help the Readers Group there celebrate International Women's Week for March 2023.
The group really enjoyed the session and learning how to write their own poetry. One member said that they hadn’t done any poetry since being at school. Another member said they didn’t think they could write poetry but found it helpful to discuss it as a group before starting their poem. In fact, the whole group enjoyed the session so much they asked if they could have more sessions, and encouraged by Emilie have typed up their poems for display in the library.
10 out of 10 from Coventry Central Library
Brenda Read-Brown, Roz Goddard and Lillian Gueken (the winner of the Poetry on Loan Poetry Competition for 2022) visited Coventy Central Library on the morning of Monday 13th March 2023.
Here's what the library staff had to say:
"Really great poetry session with 3 poets who read and performed their poetry including from published works, poetry postcards and the winning poem from the POL competition 2022. All 3 poets performed their poetry with finesse, while keeping the audience engaged and entertained .A thoroughly enjoyable event on a wet Monday morning!"f
And here's what the audience had to say:
Postcard Poets Visit Coundon Library
Poetry on Loan have a remit to send poets into smaller library branches as well as central libraries, so on 13th October 2022 we sent Mandy Ross and Steve Pottinger off to Coundon Library to perform their work and share their postcard poems with a small but perfectly formed audience. The library staff felt the event had gone very well indeed, giving another 10 out of 10 for our poets.
Celebrating with Spoz at Jubilee Crescent and Coundon libraries
Well-known Birmingham poet Spoz visited Jubilee Crescent and Coundon libraries on 8th October, performing and writing poems for library visitors, and generally providing poetic entertainment. He also wrote a poem for Coundon library's 70th birthday:
Coundon is seventy
Coundon library hits seventy today
A triumph in the face of adversity
It's more than just books
It's a community hub
A mainstay of life's university
Where cultures and characters dare to dream
Where young minds blossom and grow
Recycled from army barracks
Where knowledge is stacked row by row
So raise a "Huzzah!" to this marvellous place
From January through to December
Make use of the treasures upon these shelves
And don't forget to sign up as a member!
Spoz, 8th October 2019
And in Bell Green library...
Spoz was in Bell Green library too, in September. Here's the poem he wrote for the occasion:
Bell Green
The sun always shines on Bell Green,
Just like it’s doing today,
The library is like a Mars bar,
It helps you work, rest and play.
Books to read and colour too,
That will feed the heart and mind,
Escape to another universe
With the treasures you might find.
A kaleidoscope of colour
On a calendar’s rainbow pages
A therapeutic exercise
That can sometimes take you ages.
There are one hundred and one great characters,
Good folk like me and you,
If truth be told, there are hearts of gold,
In the wonderful CV2
Spoz, 14th Sept 2019
Getting crafty at Bell Green library
There was a treat for members of Bell Green library's craft group, when poet Amy Rainbow worked with them in July. Amy performed some poems, and helped the group to creat their own poem. The librarian said, "The session was very well appreciated by the audience who were mainly the library’s craft group and some students doing an English course with Adult Education. Amy was very engaging and helpful so that even the less confident members of the audience were able to participate in making the group poem. The members of the craft group all gave a positive assessment of the session. Having an event to look forward to and take part in helped the bonding of the group, and the Adult Education Students also enjoyed themselves and the session turned out to be an end-of-term “treat” for them."
Here's the poem:
Our Library
by Amy Rainbow and Bell Green library users
I’m a wife, a mum of many
I’m retired, a volunteer
I knit and read, I’m talented
I’m happy when I’m here
I’m a carer, a great-grandmother
I live a life that’s full
I’m African, I’m English
So what’s the library’s pull?
I love the peace and quiet
Love to read and meet new folk
Surf the net and feel less lonely
Practise crafts and share a joke
I like to help the public
I love to share my skills
It’s calm and safe and welcoming
My work here pays the bills
The best thing is it’s all for free
It’s friendly and it’s clean
I love the classes I can join
The staff are never mean
The atmosphere is wonderful
The transport links are great
The staff help sort my problems
And sometimes we have cake
There’s nothing that could be improved
Although we’d like more staff
And private rooms for little groups
Where we can chat and laugh
It should be open every day
Have books which are more recent
More study sessions for us please
A play area that’s decent
Do come and use your library
Love, read and join some groups
Explore the shelves and socialise
Put crafting skills to use
Gain confidence, enjoy yourself
It’s not just about books
A world of inspiration waits
So come and have a look
Autumn pop-ups
Following the success of the pop-up poetry event in February, Coventry have done it again - this time with Michael Thomas accompanying Jonny Fluffypunk. Poems were written that made people laugh; others made them cry - all the emotions of autumn captured in an instant poem.
Love, Coventry
Coventry Central Library can be a busy place on a Saturday, and ideal for not just one but two pop-up poets - especially because this was the day before Valentine's day, and Jonny Fluffypunk and Amy Rainbow were writing poems on the spot for people to give to their loved ones. The librarian there said, "Once people started approaching Jonny and Amy they remained busy for the rest of the session even having to stop taking on new requests so that they could complete the poems before the end of the session. It was a pleasure to have them and for us to have a Library poem which all staff will get to read. "
Amy put together a poem about Coventry library using comments from visitors. Here it is:
Our Library
We always come to the library
A place of gathering knowledge
A place of gathering people
A place to meet authors
A meeting of words.
In The Library
There are no expectations except community;
It's somewhere we can always go
Full of peace and quiet
and computers and inspiration and books.
The Library.
It's a calm place. A good place to bring kids.
A place to search for recommended reads.
Library, you are full of knowledge
You are friendly, inviting and warm
You are our place to learn new things
Library, you are full of the world
Poem by Coventry Central Library users, collated by Amy Rainbow 13 February 2016
Football and - poetry?
A dedicated and enthusiastic group of football supporters met in Coventry Library on 4th October 2014 to celebrate... poetry! Led by Crispin Thomas, who read a selection of football poems, they thought about the poetry of their favourite game. Everyone contributed one line to their very own football poem:
Football In Our Life ..in one-liners
What does our football mean to us
here in this library?
I read you all my poems
you wrote one here with me...
we did it in one-liners;
we racked our brains and senses
just like when I was still a child
and we'd play 'Consequences'.
You shared your thoughts and here they are -
we shaped them on the day;
I scribbled as you called them out
and this is what you say:
a sport that's shared with thousands
it's just a way of life
and football is friendship
no matter who you like
it's millions of all ages
and joy sprinting over fields
it's never ending drama
no matter how you feel
a lifetime filled with highs and lows
a drug that thousands share
passion fun emotion
and it's played everywhere
some find to get away from wives
it is the place to go
it's got way too expensive
and violence is a NO
some go for the excitement
the buzz is really great
it's ninety minutes to forget
your worries and escape
it's passed through generations
from fan to fan to fan
a place where some still misbehave
because they know they can
but most of all with football
the reason we all try
is win or lose ..or vegetarian
you can't go wrong with a pie!