Nantwich poet publishes poems about dyslexia: straight for the heart

A Nantwich poet has published poems about dyslexia: straight for the heart, writes Jonathan White.

Helen Kay wrote a pamphlet about chickens back in 2016 and since then Helen and her sidekick chicken puppet, Nigella, have been clucking away at many local venues.

Now, four years later, Kay will be releasing a new pamphlet, This Lexia and Other Languages on July 1.

The book explores experiences of being dyslexic at different stages in life and the way it shapes family relationships.

Described as poems which are ‘alive and beautiful’, the poet embraces both the positives and negatives of dyslexia, capturing the range of emotions from joy to anger.

Kay draws on her experiences and professional insights as a dyslexia tutor.

Though some of the poems have taken 10 years to write, in 2018 Kay undertook a project to create a platform for dyslexic poets and artists.

This became a catalyst for her to make some of her poems into videos and to put the sequence of poems together.

Instead of a face-to-face launch, the poet will be reading some poems as a live Facebook event on July 19 at 3pm followed by questions and answers.

She said: “This is not an easy time for performers of any kind.

“At a time when people are fighting to survive, other issues can seem less important.

“In reality they are more important than ever.”

The pamphlet will be published by v.press http://vpresspoetry.blogspot.com/p/about.html

Copies are available from v. press from July 1 via the author at [email protected]