In celebration of World Poetry Day held on 21st March, care homes within our Trust were invited to send in their entries to a Poetry Competition.

Presented with the theme entitled ‘Remember when’, many fantastic poems were submitted from relatives, residents and staff members across the 10 care homes. After much deliberation, three residents, one member of staff and one family member were selected as overall winners and invited to a special presentation at Lewin House, nursing care home in Aylesbury. As part of the celebration, the winners were treated to a breakfast pastry tea party with their trophy presented to them by local poet Clare Pasqual. 

After doing a few readings of her own poetry, Clare commented: “I think it’s so important to share poetry in care homes. Poetry can take you back to a place, remind you of a person or an experience and it can evoke strong memories the same way music can.”

With poetry writing and reading being a frequent activity within care homes, Community and Lifestyle Manager Sue Faulkner commented: “Not only is poetry cognitive when writing it, it’s also very therapeutic to listen to and gives our residents great social interaction when discussing them.”

Later on in the year, each poem will be published in The Fremantle Trust book of poems called ‘Reflections’ ready for National Poetry Day in October.