A man from Marlow who wrote poems through lockdown has opened up on the support he has received from the public.
Michael Bourton, who wrote 67 poems in 67 consecutive days during the first lockdown, has since released his anthology, ‘The Virus Poems’, which shares sonnets, rhymes and limericks he penned during the first shutdown.
Originally posting them through the Marlow Life Facebook page, the poems started to gather more popularity as time went on, with Michael revealing that he had 'a social responsibility', as people were now waiting for his daily rhyme.
READ MORE: Man who wrote a poem for 67 consecutive days during lockdown to publish work
Speaking to the Free Press, he spoke about how the poems have also helped him during the early parts of the pandemic, especially after he entered a period of uncertainty, following the collapse of a business deal he secured.
He said: “It has been a revelation.
“It has been some transformation from running an international consultancy company.
“I was flying back from Qatar on the day lockdown started [Monday, March 23] after doing work for my company.
“We had just won a huge contract but in the next 24 hours, it just disappeared.
“I had 12 people working for me, I had to furlough some, some were laid off and I went from lots of revenue to zero revenue in 24 hours.
“That was a shock as I had almost sort off semi-retired and that all changed.”
Michael with his dog, Bruce
After being recommended to write the poems by a friend, Michael took up the invitation and within a few days, his poems had become a popular talking point of the town.
Each poem was accompanied by an illustration or photograph, often with his dalmatian called Bruce, and before he knew it, he was offered the opportunity to publish his work through a publishing company.
His work had become so popular that many people have stated that his poems are in some cases, ‘the highlight of their day’.
The front cover of the Virus Poems
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He continued: “Someone knew that I had written the odd poem as I do them in business meetings as a bit of an icebreaker.
“From nowhere, to 67 consecutive poems, to the book.
“It got so much positive feedback that people were giving me their addresses so that I can send the books over to them.
“I remember one of the addresses was in Huntingdon.
“It turned out that it was from the daughter of an elderly woman who lived in the Marlow area and she was buying it as a surprise for her because in hospitals when you visit a patient, it can be hard to talk about stuff as you end up going, ‘what can we talk about?’
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“It was a bit like that for her because her 86-year-old mother was in lockdown in Marlow and she couldn’t leave the house.
“So every day at 5pm they would have a conversation about the poem I put up on Facebook.
"I knew nothing about this until after it happened – then you realise you’ve got some form of social responsibility.
“That helped me and kept me motivated.”
The Virus Poems is available to purchase online.
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