Introduction

 

It was always my intention to produce a sequel to Covid Tymes, which was written during the lock-downs of the Corona Virus Pandemic. I anticipated a further wave of the virus through the winter months. The news in September and October was fraught with other issues – transport, fuel prices at the pumps, gas and electricity hikes. I didn’t write much about Covid for a while, although I tried to keep up with the news. I wrote other poetry.  I  lost interest in the idea of writing more poems about Covid. Then we got news of Omicron.

Omicron was a corona virus spin off – a “variant of concern” identified by scientists in South Africa. News of this strain led some people to think it had come from South Africa, which was not the case. They just had great research and science. Omicron was found to be more transmissible – it spread quickly – and yet (mainly due to our vaccination programme) – the resulting infection was milder and carried less likely-hood of the need for hospitalisation.. However, sheer numbers meant it was still a threat to our overstretched, tired NHS workforce.

New Normal is a collection of poems written, mostly, between September 2021 and March 2022. I’ve blown hot and cold about printing it. Currently I’m on a cold wave. The poems are included in the “poem” tab, but they may disappear, as they are not it the same sequence as they appear in the book, and I would like to amend that. So my latest idea is to make the entire booklet available to view on-line, accessed from a link on this site, or maybe just as one long page in the “poems” tab.