Wigan writer pens book of pandemic poems

Pandemic Poems: The Covid 19, looks at how different walks of life ranging from parents to pub owners and teachers to NHS workers have faced up to the unprecedented challenges thrown at them by the events of 2020.

Michelle has long had a passion for poetry but mainly confined herself to writing humorous rhymed messages for friend and family members and in birthday cards.

However, when the worldwide pandemic hit earlier this year she began scribbling down verses about how it was affecting people, and has now self-published the collection on Amazon.

Michelle, 45, said: “I was speaking to different people and thinking about how Covid was affecting them and just started writing poems.

“My husband thought they were quite good so I started thinking I would do 19 poems, because it’s Covid-19.

“It all came together quite quickly. The first one was based on my husband Colin and I’m the wife in the poems, obviously.

“There’s one about a cancer sufferer and that’s based on my uncle David. His treatment has stopped because of the pandemic and I thought it must be horrific with people going on the back burner.

“I’ve got a friend whose husband runs gyms so I did one about that and then there’s one about school teachers.

“That’s partly because my kids were talking about being set work but I can only guess that for teachers it has been a manic time trying to support everybody.”

Michelle’s talent for verse has recently brought her into the spotlight as she was invited onto local radio and challenged to come up with a poem about pies.

She has also just finished doing HR qualifications and sent her tutor a poem which was then shared on the home learning company’s LinkedIn profile.

The pandemic poems have also been going down well online with a number of positive reviews on Amazon from readers saying how much the verses entertained them.

Pandemic Poems: The Covid 19, by Michelle Glaister, is available now from Amazon as a download for Kindle or in paperback.