For Creativity and Wellbeing Week Create we set a literary challenge. We asked our participants to create and share an acrostic poem using the word ‘MUSIC’. This poem needed to include reflections on how music inspires us in so many different ways and improves our wellbeing. For example, what does has music meant to us at different times in our lives perhaps? We asked people to set out their poems like this:
M ____________________
U ____________________
S ____________________
I ____________________
C ___________________
We had a truly wonderful response as people from our PMZ community of all ages across Plymouth and beyond got their thinking caps on and submitted some beautiful poems!
We brought together a panel of poetry judges external to PMZ to choose a winning poem. All entries were anonymised and carefully read and enjoyed, with the readers all gaining something from the experience too. A few words from the panel:
“It was very difficult to judge because everybody had something relevant and powerful to say about music.”
“Reading these poems was great because I could escape from the continual news about Coronavirus, so it was a thoroughly enjoyable thing to do! Thank-you all for this experience and for your amazing poems.
I hope that you also gained from creating the poems as much as the readers will enjoy hearing and reading them!”“What a genius idea in this time of lockdown to bring us together in this way. Thankyou PMZ!”
“This experience of being asked to help with the poems made me stop and think more deeply about music. It was great to be included in this project!”
“Such talent”!
The winning poem, shown at the top of the page, was by Judy Morse. This poem was chosen because it is wonderfully nostalgic and evokes the sadness, happiness, the highs and the lows – all the emotions that music engenders. The final thought on the healing of sorrows and regrets through the joy of music brings the poem right into the present moment. It’s concise and well-rounded and really fulfilled the brief. You don’t need to be able to ‘play’ music to be able to appreciate it. You can get involved or immersed in it throughout your life. This poem traces music through different points through time and looks forward into the future with hope.
Judy’s poem will be decorated and sent to her in a beautiful format. It will be then set to a musical soundtrack by members of PMZ and we will share the results over the coming weeks once it’s completed. CONGRATULATIONS JUDY!!
And a huge THANK YOU to EVERYONE for your truly fantastic efforts.
[CLICK ON ANY POEM BELOW TO ENLARGE IT]
Since the initial challenge more people have sent us their poems too, which we have loved to receive and we hope to add those here also.
To get involved with this or any of our future creative activities please follow us on Facebook. You can send us your ideas there or you can get in touch with us here.