Can of Worms - Covid 19 Poetry Diary

Written daily throughout the UK’s COVID-19 regulatory restrictions, Can of Worms picks up directly from Paul’s first volume, Fighting Talk. These poems document the period of July to mid-October 2020 – from the pubs re-opening through to the introduction of the ‘Three-Tier System’. Compassionate, humorous, political and principled, here is another extraordinary collection for extraordinary times and a continuing discourse on the mood of a nation. “Paul Cookson is on the ball with poetry and life in the here and now. These trying times need poets to help us find a compass. This book is a must.” – Michael Rosen “Paul's poetry gives voice to all the things that scare us and all the things that lift us, and everything in between. When we look back at 2020/21 and think what was all that about? his work will help us to remember and to see how far we've come.” – Rev. Kate Bottley “A sublime collection of instinctive and honest poems that will undoubtedly serve as a poignant and definitive record of a challenging, turbulent year.” – Badly Drawn Boy Nationally acclaimed poet Paul Cookson was born in 1961, brought up near Preston, and now lives in Retford, Notts. He has worked as a poet since 1989, performing in schools and libraries, and at literature festivals and events across the world. As well as being a National Reading Hero award-winner, Poet-in-Residence for The National Football Museum and Everton in the Community, he is Writer-in-Residence for Sing Together, which involves 125 Lancastrian schools and over 5000 children and 400 teachers. His anthology, The Works, has sold over a quarter of a million copies and has become a teacher’s ‘poetry Bible’. Can of Worms is illustrated by Martin Chatterton.