CoronaVerses: Poems from the Pandemic

By Janine Booth

This book is emerging in the UK at the very beginning of April 2020.

 

Coronavirus has already killed over two thousand people in this country and many thousands more around the world.

 

We are under orders to stay at home unless it is essential to go out.
If we are key workers, we go out to work. If we are not, we show our solidarity to those who do and work from home if we can.
We demand that our and others' incomes are maintained and our health protected. We volunteer with the local mutual aid groups that have filled the gaps left by a stripped-down welfare state and
a slow reaction to the pandemic from the government.

 

And we write poems.
Sad poems, funny poems, angry poems, touching poems.
Formal poems, rhyming poems, free verse and rants.

 

On 18 March, poet Janine Booth set up the Facebook group CoronaVerses: poems from the pandemic,
hoping to provide a forum to address the many issues and experiences that people were facing, but not expecting it to attract the volume of verse that it did.

 

All the poems in this book were posted in the group within its first week. So were hundreds more. We put together this anthology as an act of solidarity and a contribution to the fight against the virus.

Contributing poets:

Attila the Stockbroker

Steve White

Ian Winter

Sez Thomasin

Mark Connors

Gill Lambert

Margaret Corvid

Fay Roberts

Merryn Williams

Hilary Walker

Rhoda Thomas

Leo Capella
Sophie Gresswell

Bridie Breen

Barry Fentiman Hall

Joseph Redford

Laura Taylor

Pete Ramskill

Janine Booth

Gail Something-Else

Mark Marusic

Paul Blackburn

Megan Peel

Emma Dalmayne

Owen Collins

Rebecca Mallowan

Katie Greenbrown

Merry Cross

Tricia Elliott

Martin Hayes

Cathy Smith

James Denny

Gordon Zola

Cardinal Cox

Paul Dovey

Paul Waring

Ushiku Crisafulli

Melanie Branton

Lucy Joanne

Jan McCarthy

Herbie Herbs

Nick Toczek

Callum Brazzo

Alexandra Forshaw

Pete Yeandle

Elizabeth Faitarone

Randall L. Horton

Mary Kerr

Jason Travis

Ian Whiteley

Ron Graves

Patrick Kealey
and a composite poem convened by Jimmy Andrew

• Language: English
• Publisher: Janine Booth
• Release date: Apr 1, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393770893

Book preview

about this book

This book is emerging in the UK at the very beginning of April 2020.

––––––––

Coronavirus has already killed over two thousand people in this country and many thousands more around the world.

––––––––

We are under orders to stay at home unless it is essential to go out.

If we are key workers, we go out to work. If we are not, we show our solidarity to those who do and work from home if we can.

We demand that our and others’ incomes are maintained and our health protected. We volunteer with the local mutual aid groups that have filled the gaps left by a stripped-down welfare state and a slow reaction to the pandemic from the government.

––––––––

And we write poems.

Sad poems, funny poems, angry poems, touching poems.

Formal poems, rhyming poems, free verse and rants.

––––––––

On 18 March, poet Janine Booth set up the Facebook group CoronaVerses: poems from the pandemic, hoping to provide a forum to address the many issues and experiences that people were facing, but not expecting it to attract the volume of verse that it did.

––––––––

All the poems in this book were posted in the group within its first week. So were hundreds more. We put together this anthology as an act of solidarity and a contribution to the fight against the virus.

Poems

Take Courage

Another day. Two puffs on my inhaler.

My breathing calm and steady as before

No sudden cough, no temperature,

I’m ready

To write and think and help for one day more

My big strong arms seek solace in the garden

My cycling legs flex slowly with regret

No pleasure in those rides along the coast path

When every fellow human is a threat.

––––––––

I’m fit for 62, no doubt about it

Except my lungs, and that’s no fault of mine

They bellowed me through some two thousand concerts

When all those cigarettes were thought just fine

They still fuel me for miles when I’m out cycling –

There’s millions of folk far worse off than me!

I didn’t feel such fear when I had cancer:

That pink mass in my bladder I could see.

––––––––

The fear we feel is normal. Let’s not hide it.

But don’t let it supplant the love of life.

Do all you can to help the folk around you –

I see that courage in my steadfast wife.

And if the battle comes, well, now I’m ready

To take the bastard on with all my might.

And if I’m gone: you’ll face a brand new future.

Please use these poems and songs to spread some light.

––––––––

Attila the Stockbroker

Nudge

Three cheers for the PM off the quiz show.

Covering our wages while on furlough.

But why didn’t he do it three weeks ago?

Instead mostly we just get nudge.

Nudge.

––––––––

Three cheers for the PM off the quiz show

Who didn’t listen to the WHO.

We’re standing on the precipice, don’t you know?

And mostly we just get nudge.

Nudge.

––––––––

Three cheers for the PM off the quiz show,

For shutting Bannatynes, the Rose, and Cargo.

But I read it first in the Metro

‘Cos mostly we just get nudge.

Nudge.

––––––––

Nudge:

Makes you think that your neighbours are your judge.

––––––––

Nudge:

Designed to make your opinion slightly budge.

––––––––

Nudge:

Is Cummings’ tool but it’s used too much.

––––––––

Nudge:

When you need leadership but just get fudge.

––––––––

Three cheers for the PM of the shit show.

The cracks are appearing in