Here at Look we believe that poems are good for you! They can help us talk about how we’re feeling, help us understand our emotions and can enable us to make ourselves understood to other people.
So, with the help of some pretty awesome authors, we have launched the Look Loves Poems Challenge! Every Sunday, one of our authors will announce the theme of the week and will post a poem on that theme, online. We want everyone in our Look Community – as well as their friends, grandparents, next-door neighbours, and posties – to be inspired by that poem and to respond by either sending us a poem that you have written yourself, or one that you simply love, that fits the theme.
You can either send us your poems via email or, even better, send us a film of yourselves reading them which we can share on our website, across our social media, and on our YouTube channel.
In doing this, we hope to spread a little sunshine, perhaps even inspire others to write, and to find their own voice. If you can’t send us a film, don’t worry – we have a host of lovely poets and actors who have volunteered to read the poems aloud so we can keep sharing these lovely videos. In fact, check out this lovely message from Look’s friend and awesome author Marcus Sedgwick, who is helping us launch the challenge:
(Ed: We met prize-winning author (and absolute legend) Marcus Sedgwick when he was researching his brilliant book, She Is Not Invisible. The book explores obsession, trust, and coincidence and is a page-turning thriller about 16-year-old Laureth Peak’s mission to find her missing father. A mission made all the more difficult by one fact: Laureth Peak is blind. If you haven’t read it yet, you need to! Order it here).
Remember! You have one week to respond to the challenge before we launch the next theme. If you’re writing your own poem, don’t worry too much about making it completely perfect – the real point of this challenge is to get people writing and sharing their words. We’re not looking for the next Tempest or Zephaniah (although that would be pretty awesome!!); we want people to experience the amazing sense of achievement that comes with getting a poem that starts as a tiny seed of an idea, to a finished piece of writing that can be shared with, and enjoyed by the Look Community.
Please email your videos or written poems to events@look-uk.org, with your name and any information about you and/or the poem that you would like us to know.
Each Sunday, head to Look’s YouTube channel, to find out the theme of the week. Here’s Marcus again with his poem that has inspired our first theme, Friendship:
To follow the project online, follow the #LookLovesPoems hashtag!
We have found these useful resources that may help get you started:
https://resources.poetrysociety.org.uk/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIi-yg8Ibb6AIVybvVCh2x6wjAEAAYASAAEgKPHvD_BwE
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/sep/30/how-poetry-can-light-up-our-darker-moments-mental-illness
thereader.org.uk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0BUYzMypi8
