At the end of May 2017, the #poetryarmy (aka Dove Cottage Young Poets) were out in force on the streets of Kendal. Their mission? To hand out free poems to the good people of Cumbria.

Dove Cottage Young Poets is organised by the Wordsworth Trust, and run by poet Kim Moore, who also co-directs Kendal Poetry Festival, and who very kindly invited me to come along and run a poetry workshop with the group. The Young Poets wrote poems to be printed on postcards, which were then distributed around town – partly to advertise Kendal Poetry Festival, but also to spread a little joy through free poetry.

Highlights were the woman who told me she’d had a terrible morning so I’d just made her day, and the man who quoted William Henry Davies to me. Also the armed policeman putting a poem inside his jacket so he could ‘carry it next to his heart’!