Takeaway Poems

I love writing to order, so I was chuffed to get invite to be part of the Poetry Takeaway line up outside the Bronte Parsonage this weekend. Passersby see a burger van and four poets hard at work. They're "triaged" (!) by our boss Michael Bolger, and speak to one of us about what they'd like a poem about. We take 15-25 minutes and get to work on our order (which is then written out and bagged up- often to be framed and shared on social media. Lots of pressure for a poem written at speed!). Mine included: an uplifting poem in the style of Emily Bronte for someone starting a new job, one about family at Sea Palling beach in Norfolk, one of my favourite topics- TIME!- one to commemorate Branwell Bronte's death day, which was 175 years earlier and "anything you want at all". Two of my recipients cried (a definite result). It was lovely to hear the other poet's poems too and to be part of such a buzzing working environment. People kept offering to pay because they couldn't believe they were getting the poems for free (Michael takes the van all round the country- in this instance it had been booked by the Bronte museum's Festival of Women's Writing. After poet-talk in the pub I then went for a dusk wander in the Bronte churchyard in Haworth, thinking of Emily Bronte walking "where my own nature would be leading, it vexes me to take another path" and hoping Branwell's ghost wouldn't pop up to celebrate his death day and thank me for my poem about him...