Poetry is helping several residents at Ross Court express their own many and varied life experiences, and share them with each other.

Amanda Denny, Recreation and Activities Co-ordinator at Ross Court, told the Ross Gazette that often people in residential homes live under the same roof but share very little conversation with each other. She is constantly looking for ways to bring them together to share their memories and opinions. When residents showed a particular interest in the poetry books among the books delivered to the home on a regular basis by the Library service, Amanda seized on the chance of developing new ways to bring the residents together over a shared interest.

The local library service is not only used by those who walk into Ross Library, select a book to borrow and then take it home. Clare Lockley, the Delivered Services Officer, is also responsible for selecting and delivering a selection of books to nursing homes, among other places.

Following discussions with residents Clare, who is herself very interested in poetry, agreed to give a reading. A large group of residents throughly enjoyed the event, urging Clare to read more and more poems which they remembered, sometimes as just half-forgotten phrases.

Several of the residents were so inspired by the event they asked Clare to set up a poetry group and this has been running once a month. As well as sharing favourite poems, the members also create their own poems. This week they listened to a poem Claire had written using the phrases they had suggested when talking about their memories.

Mary McCory, who is pictured below with a photograph of a similar house in Ireland, described her childhood cottage home. She was thrilled with the poem that was created.

Amanda said that there have been real benefits from organising the poetry group, she said it has empowered the residents to see that their ideas are recognised. She added that involving the Library and Claire, as a DSO, has been very important as it provides a link to the outside world.

Amanda added that the residents are discussing producing a booklet of their own poems and they have asked for a proper library area at Ross Court, where they can see the books arranged on shelves.

Claire added that organising the poetry sessions has been useful to the library as they are exploring more ways they can provide a service to other residential homes, which could also provide some funding for the service.