In 2020, poets in Coventry and London had a series of exchanges with isolated older people by post and by phone. They talked about their hopes, recent and past experiences and then forged two beautiful new poems.

Remi Graves spoke with isolated people living in Lewisham who are supported by domiciliary care through Eleanor Healthcare. Joelle Taylor received postcards on ‘Hopeful Visions of a New Normal’ from residents and staff from two Coventry care homes.
From these exchanges, each poet forged their own response about hope, memory and beauty.

You can listen to each poet reading their poem here:

How the dance remembers you, by Joelle Taylor

Waving from (t)here, by Remi Graves

Poetry booklet

Deptford illustrator and Meet Me artist, Lily Ash Sakula took these two poems and created an accessible Zine booklet which was distributed to 200 people in December 2020, many of whom had previously been referred to Entelechy Arts to receive a Gnomes at Home box.

To view an online version of booklet click here

Postcards

Each booklet included a stamped postcard, inviting the reader to share their own reflections.

The postcard included the prompt “Care is…” and received post-cards will be used in the early stages of Theatre of Wandering, Entelechy Arts’ next collaboration with Coventry City of Culture, which builds on conversations about care for individuals and our communities.

This project was kindly supported by Coventry City of Culture.