The poet in residence at Cockermouth’s Wordsworth House has spent the last year reflecting on how the coronavirus pandemic has affected everyone’s lives.
Rowan McCabe became the National Trust property’s poet in residence in 2019.
In the past, Rowan knocked on people’s doors, listened to their stories and wrote them a poem, but he adapted-to the pandemic and – Georgian style – instead he asked for people’s stories by post or met them on the fells, as Wordsworth once did.
He will be sharing his work to mark National Poetry Day tomorrow to celebrate the joys and challenges of the past two years.
Visitor experience and operations manager Zoe Gilbert said: “The work that has emerged from Rowan’s residency has been so moving.
“He has absolutely captured the spirit of Wordsworth in lifting up and placing value on people’s lives. So many of us have spent time thinking on what is important, what makes us happy and grieving for things or people lost. Rowan’s poems are snapshots of his life, and all our lives, and what it means to be human.”
Rowan added: “I’ve felt incredibly lucky to be a part of this project. The residency didn’t exactly go the way I had imagined. But working within the restrictions of the various lockdowns has been a strange but really rewarding experience. And it’s been a huge honour to briefly walk in the enormous footsteps of this literary giant.”
