At the start of the Covid lockdown, Paul Cookson set out to write a poem a day. After the end of lockdown, he just kept going. Now he has published his daily thoughts on Covid, plus Brexit, the NHS, the US election, Russian’s invasion of Ukraine, the Lionesses’ Euros victory, the Queen’s death, the UK government, as well as his observations on many personal, and other national and global incidents. 

The bulky and handsome two volumes of The Man Who Launched a Thousand Poems - with illustrations by Martin Chatterton - begin on the first day of lockdown in March 2020, and end on 5 November 2022.  The first poem is titled ‘The Day The World Stood Still’ (the first line, in suitably northern vein, is “More than just – trouble at t’mill”). His penultimate poem title, ‘Tired Of Banging The Same Old Drum’, suggests an understandable poetic fatigue, but the final one, ‘Poem One Thousand’ ends in a note of triumph, and gratitude to those followers who have stayed the course with him:

                             Be warned, however …

     I hope you are in it for the long haul

                            I may not stop just yet

                                       If ever

     Until tomorrow, friends …   

Paul Cookson is poet in residence at The National Football Museum, and mates with the legendary rock group Slade, who have proclaimed him their own poet laureate. At the same time as launching his two volumes of poetry, he has also produced a double CD with musical friends, titled ‘I’ll be Bernie, You Be Elton’, which he was promoting as well at a bash in Retford on Saturday 29 April.