LITERARY lovers from across East Lancashire took part in readings and events to mark National Poetry Day.

Schools from across the county called on pupils to write and read their own poems while live readings took place across the country.

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The theme for this year’s event was ‘Messages’ which encouraged people to “say it with a poem”.

The day kicked off with the Prince of Wales reading Seamus Heaney’s poem The Shipping Forecast on BBC Radio 4.

The Royal Mail also used a special postmark on items posted yesterday.

Pupils from St John the Baptist RC Primary School in Burnley visited Dove Court Residential and Nursing Home this week to read poems to residents.

Sheila Anderson, activities co-ordinator at the home, said: “We try and do something special every year.

“Residents were able to read their own poems and listen to the children read theirs. It is about creativity and encouraging people to do things they have not done before.”

She said the children also read well-known poems such as The Daffodils by Wordsworth and Macavity the Mystery Cat by TS Eliot which help with memory and reminiscence.

Marina Hartley, church warden at St Cuthbert’s Church in Burnley, who volunteers at the home, said: “They read their own poems - some of which they had written years ago and one man who is besotted with Shakespeare read some sonnets. It brought them alive. They listened and became interested.”

Author and poet Paul Jenkins visited Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School (QEGS) in Blackburn to perform some of his latest work and create some new poems with students.

Valerie Dewhurst, head of the school’s library, said he had been working with year eight and nine pupils looking at different styles of poetry and working on some they had written in the weeks before National Poetry Day.

She said: “During lunch time pupils from across the school read their favourite poems - some of which they had written themselves and some of which they had found while researching in the library.”

“Because the theme is Messages they used text messages, emails and social media.

“They really enjoyed it. Paul had a way of engaging them. He has that wow factor and was showing them how poetry can be fun.”

Poet Clare Shaw who grew up in Burnley also read her poem about Pendle Hill on BBC Radio Lancashire.

She said: “I grew up in Burnley and Brierfield, so Pendle Hill was a constant presence in my upbringing - huge, hulking and totally unmistakable. Soaked in history, sometimes foreboding but always beautiful, it has a magnetic pull - not just on the eye, but also the heart. The poem makes several references to an old folk song - “Old Pendle.” For me, for the songwriter and for many Lancashire people, Pendle means home. There was never any question that this was the landmark I would write about.”