When you see a typewriter, do you hear the clacking of the keys? Do you hear the whizz ding of the carriage return or the crank of the roller as the paper is pulled out?

A manual typewriter is the essential tool of our Poet in Residence, Beth Calverley. Beth is part of the Arts and Culture team. Her post is supported by Above & Beyond and Weston Area Health NHS Trust Charitable Funds. She works across all ten sites at UHBW connecting patients, carers and staff through writing, reading and co-creating poetry. 

Beth conjures poems from ideas that come from private conversations. She types each poem just once, reads it aloud, seals it in an envelope, and hands it over. Lots of poems are requested as ‘thank you’ gifts for colleagues and loved ones.

When she was invited back for a second year, Beth said: “Co-creating poetry with UHBW staff members, patients, carers and families, often during life-changing times, is a whole-hearted honour and I'm joyful that it has been so well-received by the Trust. Poetry and creative writing are gentle, powerful sources of meaning that can help people to notice, express and process what is important to them, from people to places, past to future. I'm looking forward to working with my colleagues in the Trust, enabling more explorations of memories, ideas, stories and poems in a rainbow of imaginative, supportive ways."