The Unpredicted Spring

In 1930, English poet Norman Nicholson was diagnosed with Tuberculosis at the age of sixteen and admitted to a sanatorium, where he was placed in isolation for almost two years. It was, he said, where he learned to be a poet. In 2020, in the middle of a pandemic, millions of people all over the world faced lockdown and months of social isolation. The Norman Nicholson Society organised a poetry competition, asking for experiences of the pandemic from adults and young people under eighteen. This anthology is the result. It contains poetry from all over the world, and the subject matter is equally varied; from goats in Llandudno, to woodland walks, the women of Chennai sewing masks through the night, northern birdsong, the bureaucracy of Coronavirus, and a family argument over a fur coat – it’s all here.