In These Strange Times

By NAWG Publishing

The Covid-19 pandemic affected writers differently. Some found the imposed lockdown liberated them from other day-to-day activities and responsibilities, giving them the time to write. Others found it restricted their creativity.

In this anthology, twenty writers have produced twenty-six Covid-inspired pieces of poetry and prose reflecting their thoughts, concerns and hopes for the future. In these strange times, what is normality?

Compiled by Steve Bowkett, this anthology includes work by:
Ben Leach, Sue Short, Alison Ringrose, Denise Telford, Jilly Funnell, Mark Henderson, Penelope Alexander, Edward Cantner, Jean Eaton, Bruce Dapple, Kate Pashley, John Hope, Rosemary Gray, Sue Gerrard, Sylvie Field, Creana Bosac, Toni Allen, Jennifer Margrave, Carol Hurley and Daisy Watkin.

• Language: English
• Publisher: NAWG Publishing
• Release date: Jun 20, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201397074

Book preview

Introduction

In the summer of 2020 the National Association of Groups and Writers (NAWG) agreed to let me compile an anthology of pieces written by members about their experience of the Covid-19 pandemic, or stories or poems simply written during lockdown when perhaps many or most of us felt so hemmed in, with writing as a welcome escape.

The material in this small book is roughly chronological, ending with notes of hope for light at the end of the tunnel and that after what has been an ordeal for so many, the world will emerge as a kinder, more thoughtful and compassionate place.

---

Steve Bowkett, June 2021.

ONE

If You Can Lose Your Head

Ben Leech

If you can lose your head when all about you

Are keeping theirs and to their hearts are true;

If you can snatch and hoard with ‘me’ in mind

Thinking only of self, and shrug your shoulders without care

For others of the human kind:

---

If you can without reflection reach and grasp

While people go in want and weep in fear;

If you breathe easy while your neighbours gasp,

And turn away, your conscience clear:

---

If you can flaunt the rules that help us live

And disregard the risk your actions cause;

Your mind locked into ‘take’ not ‘give’,

Walk your own road regardless, without pause:

---

If you can make a heap of all your winnings

And dare not risk them with the thought of loss;

Deaf and blind to others’ asking,

Too small to think you might the threshold cross:

---

If you fail to see these days as chance to heal and grow

With divisions joined and conflicts calmed;

As more than just disaster, but as opportunity

For us as one to ride the storm:

---

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds’ worth of ‘woe is me’

And damn the rest of you;

If you can race ahead and feel you’ve won

As darkness gathers round this fragile world,

Then think about what’s left of you,

And hang your head in shame my son.

TWO

Stay Alert

Sue Short

As early as February 2020

We heard that a virus had been detected in a live animal market

in the region of Wuhan.

Where is Wuhan?

In China.

Wuhan was shut down.

People in Wuhan had to stay indoors and couldn’t travel.

We were told that it wouldn’t spread to England.

England was too far away.

We were safe

or so it seemed.

At the time few precautions were put in place.

No testing or PPE.

We didn’t need to worry about those things.

I called the virus Coriolanus just to be funny.

It wasn’t funny.

I started to worry.

Trump said that the virus had been created in a laboratory in China

that was spread deliberately by the Chinese government

to the rest of the world.

Rational people said that it had originally come from bats

passed to another animal then into humans

in the live animal markets.

Bats rhymes with rats both started a plague.

For some reason it spread very quickly in Northern Italy.

So there shouldn’t be any yodelling for the time being

but it was ok to have Yodel deliveries.

Skiers returning from the mountains in Italy

brought the virus back to the UK and other parts.

Definitely not good to go skiing and contaminate others

but that’s what happened.

Are you a ski instructor?

Or have a liking for bats?

You need to start worrying.

Still Britain was unprepared.

No quarantine in place for returning holiday makers

especially skiers.

Quarantine measures were