Messages and Meetings.

The theme of National Poetry Day this year is Messages.

This celebration of all things poetic takes place on October 6th in schools and venues across the country - and was officially launched at the 2016 CLiPPA Awards this month. I was lucky enough to be invited along to the National Theatre to watch the shortlisted poets read from their collections. As ever, the schoolchildren's performances outshone the adults! A big congratulations to Michael Rosen and Sarah Crossan for their joint win.

Here I am, inspecting a rather special poetry machine that engraves poem messages onto wood and releases them into the air via balloons.

You can read my commissioned poem 'Message' and discover numerous ideas and printable resources around the theme of messages on the wonderful Forward Arts Foundation website.

While I was in London that day, I had two meetings with publishers to discuss some very exciting future projects. More news on that later... Meanwhile, I'm off to sit in the sunshine and write a poem.