Poet Laureateship at the Forest Cafe

So I've now come to the end of my time as poet laureate of the Forest Cafe Free Shop. Yesterday I held a creative writing workshop in the downstairs space of the cafe where 6 people joined me to write poetry and stories inspired by things in the free shop. There was a great variety of objects chosen to inspire a lovely selection of writings.

Today I wrote another story and then gave a presentation on my time as poet laureate and read out my stories and poetry and showed the collages I've made in my time in the cafe.

It's been a very enjoyable week, I've met some great people and spent lots of time writing, inspired by the amazing random things found in the free shop. I've written two poems about dinosaurs, made two dinosaur themed collages, written a story about a hat, a poem inspired by a photo album and a map, a poem about a broken doll and a story about two rabbits exploring the free shop. I've drunk lots of green tea, despite this cat's best attempts to try to get me to try other types of tea

I've also eaten naschos, falafel wraps and burritos, but the burritos are the best and even feature in one of my stories.

If you're in Edinburgh, you can always pop into the Forest to donate items to the free shop or to browse what's there already - they have a great selection of clothes, books, art materials, toys and raondom objects.

As for the poet laureateship, it will now be a quarterly position, held by a different poet every quarter and there will be an annual publication featuring everything produced by all the poet laureates. The publication will be available from the Forest Cafe.

You can read more about my time as poet laureate of the free shop here, here, here and here.