My Writer in Residency for Sheffield’s Year of Reading has taken me to many, many brilliant and exciting places already, and there’ll be more of that to come once we’re back out and in some form of normality. One of the things we’ve been keen on is building something that lasts – that could be me giving you the tools to write better, or edit more efficiently. It may be showing you how to generate story and poem ideas and make them into something you’re proud of.
Or it might be a BIG poem.
Ok. It is going to be a BIG poem. A BIG poem that’s going to be displayed somewhere BIG.
It’s a poem made up of the bits about Sheffield that mean the most to you. And they can be ANYTHING! Memories, first times, favourite places, brilliant people. That part of the city only you know about, or something that only means something to you. It might be a landmark that we all know as easily as it could be about a single bench or lamp post. A pet. Anything that makes you feel happy.
And how do you get involved? Simple. Tweet us (as @SheffLibraries). Leave a comment on the blog. Or on Facebook. When we’re done I’m going to construct what you give us into something you can all be proud of and something that’s going to last.
All the details here. I literally can’t wait to see what you give us!
And, here’s one I made earlier, as part of a masterclass I ran…
Our Sheffield is
Love parks and city squares with flowers and benches
with space to meet friends
not social distancing.
Our Sheffield is the vernacular:
Ey up love! Giyore!
It’s the people
overdoing food at The Cabin and seeing kids go to hug the stuffed bear,
it’s independence:
my first ever market with my shop
someone commuting on the same train
every day for 40 years
and going to Sheffield Central station, ready for a long trip.
Our Sheffield is that graffiti that says “I LOVE YOU WILL U MARRY ME?”
calm blue water at Redmires on a nice day
The restaurant we always go to in town with a wooden decoration we always wondered about conveniently hiding the fuse box.
It’s heart pain in Canals, it’s rain touching water.
In Millhouses holding the stream within its bushy trees following my loneliness.
It’s the Northern General with the biggest hospital ground in Europe.
Our Sheffield is a guy I see singing on the moor
it’s the scaffolders on Chapel Walk
the cleaner at one of the high-rise apartment blocks overlooking town
the gardener that looks after the winter gardens.
It’s street pastors. It’s the short wall that makes the entrance to the
university building a squat courtyard.
It’s the fire station that used to be on Ringinglow Road
the Endcliffe park heron
and, of course that old couple kissing.
It’s the terraced houses balanced on steep streets, cranes on the horizon,
it’s poetry on walls.
Nuri Rosegg, Ellen Uttley, Jacob Waterall, Gilli Cliff, Louisa Rhodes, Claire Walker, Nuri Rosegg, Jane Gosney, Emma Harrison-Thorp, Katherine Franklin, Agnes Priddle, Sean Webster, Hannah Whiteoak.