The Poetry Plane
During the pandemic, we delivered a pilot Poetry Postie FM - Communities Communicating - series of programmes aired on local radio.
It showcased work gathered from creative literacy/wellbeing workshops delivered to wide and diverse members of the community aged 2-92yrs. It also delivered Parcel Pet Reporter Packs to children and young people, inspiring them to create songs, stories, poems and reports that were also featured each week on the show.
Maia, our mini Poetry Postie aged 10yrs (shown above) featured regularly on the show and one week we were exploring the theme of ‘winging it’ - which was something we were all having to do during that difficult time.
In this short clip you’ll hear how we decided to wing it with our interview and how this led to the idea for the Poetry Plane!
We weren’t sure if we would be able to find a pilot to help this idea become a reality – but lo and behold, Pete White (also pictured) from Cornwall Flying Club came forward with an offer to help. Thanks to his amazing support and those of his colleagues, we have been able to get the project off the ground, helping spirits soar and inspiring children and young people to create cargoes of poems that can be delivered via airmail!
Furthermore, Cornwall flying Club’s eco airfield inspired us to write poems on seeded paper that could be fluttered down from the sky. Wherever the poems landed they would grow into flowers! This idea has proved so successful that we are now partnering with the WW1 Aviation Heritage Trust and their wonderful pilot John Gilbert who owns a Replica Nieuport 17 and have launched an exciting new French cultural exchange.
Using the Replica Nieuport 17 as the Poetry Plane, we will take off from England with a special cargo of poems to be fluttered from the sky over N France in the summer of 2024.
The poems-written by schoolchildren and young people and inspired by the war poets such as Wilfred Owen-will be delivered in such a way to their French counterparts who in turn will write their own poems to be flown back in the spirit of peace and friendship.
Watch this (air) space!
