A brand new anthology of Christmas poems has been launched as a Facebook project.
‘A Mersey Christmas’ features work by local poets who frequent the spoken word poetry circuits around Birkenhead and Liverpool, and is available to read free.
Curated by Wirral poets Barry Woods and Michelle Wright the collection is their fourth creative writing project and a Christmas gift to the people of the region.
The group curated ‘The Quality of Mersey’ anthology in 2018 with a reading tour in 2019. An accompanying short film, which was played on the Lime Street Media Wall in June this year.
Barry Woods told birkenhead.news: “We did The World in Lockdown People’s poem at the time of the first Lockdown. This 15-page piece was then accepted into the RLB360 Capsule of Culture.”
The group then wanted to create a final project for Christmas as follow-up to ‘The Quality of Mersey’
Barry Woods continued, “I have been on the local spoken word circuit for over 20 years, usually reading at Liverpool’s Everyman Bistro. I got together with my fellow poet Michelle Wright to work on some projects that would bring together both professional and novice writers as this is the range usually experienced at an open mic night.
“From mince pies to falling snow, from Ebenezer Scrooge to turkey dinner – there are many gems in here if you are interested in a little Christmas read,”
“We wanted to put a Christmas anthology together that included many different voices from different backgrounds, and letting us know what Christmas means to them as a Merseyside resident,” he continued.
“We were unable to put on a live gig for the launch due to Covid uncertainty but we hope that the collection will reach as many people as possible before Christmas on the Facebook platform.”
Michelle Wright added, “It has been a joy sharing winter sentiments with my poetry family.”
Barry concluded by saying, “Our projects are there to inspire others, and to show what can be achieved by volunteers with a passion for the creative arts. We have no funding and we are non-profit.”
You can read the anthology of poems on Facebook by visiting https://www.facebook.com/100201242381735/posts/133510875717438/ 
A Lovely Word meets at the Everyman Bistro every first Thursday of the month at 7.30pm.
Image: Barry Woods and Michelle Wright
Why not follow birkenhead.news on Facebook and Twitter? You can also send story ideas to news@birkenhead.news
Latest news