Mick Yates

Mick Yates Covid-19 inspired poetry collection, chronicle, explores the universal sense of isolation that the worldwide pandemic caused. His masterful use of words captures the emotions that were experienced.

With Songs to Learn & Sing we wanted to try something a little different. We challenged poets to choose their favourite song (or a favourite song, nobody has just one, after all) and from there they should shamelessly steal the title and then write a poem that responds to it. This response could be based on how the song makes them feel, a memory of where they heard it first or whatever it was that made it important in the first place.This proved to be very popular and choosing Twenty from among them was all but impossible. But choose them you must and we were pleased to select Ceinwen Haydon's I Want To Hold Your Hand as the winner of our competition as it summed-up exactly what it was all about in the first place, although Ali Jones and Mick Yates, our Highly Commended Runners-Up, both could have taken the metaphorical Gold Disc on another day.Songs to Learn & Sing is something a little different and we are sure that it will soon become a classic.