#HASHTAGPOEMS: celebrating National Poetry Day 2019

#HASHTAGPOEMS: celebrating National Poetry Day 2019

Hi everyone, Gareth here.

My recent strategy has been to have adventures in sound. I've written albums; written and recorded poems for kids; I'm co-producing and co-hosting a podcast with Dan Watts; I'm developing a pre-school+ property with Richard Smith. 

Today I'd like to tell you about my wonderful experience with poetry in 2019. In January Moose Allain responded to a claim that there's no poetry on Twitter. What if I could find poets on social media who would be willing to have their poems set to music and sound design? 

I replied to the tweet and contacted Moose to figure out what to do. Moose was, as you can imagine, very supportive. Pretty much all of the poets I contacted said yes straight away.

By the way, I have discovered that the poetry community - very much alive and well on social media by the way - is open and warm and love their craft as much as I love mine. I am so grateful to them for their permission and participation.

The poets on this little sound adventure were Ian McMillan, Timi Amusan, Brian Bilston, Mukahang Limbu and Marie-Louise Eyres. I was humbled to have a chance to take their precious work and make it into recorded sound. I would also like to thank Kate Clanchy for encouraging her amazing students Timi and Mukahang to take part. You are all wonderful people. 

What followed was the series #HashtagPoems, an audio series of five poems previously published on social media, and recorded for the same platform. You can listen to them here. I hope you enjoy them, and that it perhaps encourages you to explore these poets more. And as always: if you like them, share them. 

If I can be so bold as to offer a truth: you don't need permission to be creative. Creativity is about finding your own voice, not waiting for the validation of others. So create with abandon, whether it is commissioned or just for you. Have a wonderful day, and enjoy all the amazing poetry you see popping up in your social media feeds today.