A Marlow man who wrote a poem for 67 consecutive days during lockdown will be publishing his work at the end of the month.
Mike Bourton, who is a presenter at Marlow FM, was recommended to write one for a Marlow based coronavirus support page on Facebook to ‘cheer people up’ on March 26.
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Following the positive reception, Mike decided to write a poem every day for the next two months, finishing on May 31.
And he hopes to spread more joy when ‘The Virus Poems’ is released in a couple of weeks.
He said: “During lockdown, I self-isolated in Marlow and a friend of mine, who knew that I wrote incidental poems, suggested I should contribute one to the local Covid Facebook support group to cheer people up.
Mike with his dog, Bruce
“I did but then I repeated it the next day and quickly the response came back from comments and likes that people really enjoyed them.
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“I wrote about all the things that were occurring from hoarding, social distancing, online drinking, caring, Captain Tom etc.
“In the end, I wrote a daily poem for 67 consecutive days and the response was so amazing.
"There were demands for them to be collated into a book, which is built as a calendar through lockdown and features comments, the poem, an illustration, and the key news headlines of the day.
"The response from the people of Marlow was nothing short of amazing.
"It seemed to help many people, who were like me, self-isolating.
"Often the comment was – this is the first thing I do in the morning and it is real-life to me.
"That made me feel really positive and was an incentive to keep writing and actually helped me enormously, especially as my business had completely stopped.
"Then the comments switched to – ‘you must make a book’, which was encouraging and has now resulted in the book.
"The enthusiasm was often directed at Bruce, my dog and now people stop me just to say hello to him.
"And if the book is successful, then I will make a donation to the local NHS.”
Mike also confirmed that each poem was accompanied by an illustration or photograph, which was often his dalmatian called Bruce.
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