Last updated at 22:34, Thursday, 11 November 2010

PRINCE Charles has offered his support to a poetry trail being organised in Cockermouth to mark the anniversary of last year’s floods.

Michael Baron, who came up with the idea for the poetry walk, wrote to the prince to inform him of the walk and said the prince wrote back to say he had great affection for the town and was happy to hear about the trail.

The poetry walk, which will go up next Friday, will feature 33 poems on water, rain and flooding by youngers from Cockermouth School, Fairfield Junior School and All Saints Primary School, professionals including Carol Ann Duffy, Seamus Heaney and Sir Andrew Motion and amateur poets who have a connection with the town or have visited in the past 30 years.

Each poem will be displayed in a different town centre business so people can visit the businesses to read them.

“It is fantastic that the prince wrote back to me to show his support for the town and the poetry trail,” he said.

“We are thinking about publishing a Cockermouth Anthology which will include a bigger number of poems – all on the same theme of flood, water, river and rain. They are the elements that have been combining to assault the town for more than 250 years but also combine to make ‘the staff of life’. But, for the moment, enjoy this unique poetry walk-about.”

The project has been helped by Joan Hetherington of Cockermouth Soroptomists and funding from Allerdale council, the Soroptomists and Riversmeet.

The poems will remain on show until November 26.

First published at 22:05, Thursday, 11 November 2010
Published by http://www.timesandstar.co.uk