Today we look at an article about the poet Michael Rosen who is hoe having spent 47 days in ICU with coronavirus. We also have a short article about a Detroit poet and rapper.

Michael Rosen Finally Home

We start today with some good news. Michael Rosen, the poet and author, has finally been allowed to return home following his lengthy stay in intensive care with coronavirus. Rosen who is 74 tweeted “I’ve survived” as he left the hospital, he has been there since the end of March.

Before he was admitted to hospital the former children’s laureate had been chronicling his symptoms on Twitter, describing “bed-breaking shakes” and “Freezing cold sweats”, some of his tweets were slightly more descriptive as you would expect, including bringing to mind the image of a war hero biting down on a hankie whilst having a wound cauterised with charcoal.

In total, the poet spent 47 days in ICU. On 6^th June he was able to take his first steps since March. On 12^th June he began posting on Twitter again to share his progress with the thousands of fans who have been sending him messages during his illness. He even joked that he was calling the walking stick he was using “Sticky McStickstick”.

Yesterday his wife posted the picture that let fans in on the good news; a picture of Rosen sitting at home on his balcony with a cup of tea. He has even responded online to some of the many thousands of messages he received including taking to Twitter to thank Jeremy Corbyn.

Whilst Rosen is home, and his family are no doubt delighted to have him back, he looks somewhat frail and clearly has a long way to go to full recovery. His wife took to social media to ask fans not to ask him to read or foment on things or do any work as he needs to rest.

Rosen served as the children’s laureate from 2007 to 2009 and has campaigned vigorously to keep libraries open and reduce the number of testing that takes place in schools.

He was full of praise for the NHS and the “fantastic treatment” that he had received during his lengthy stay. A poem that he wrote for the 60^th anniversary of the NHS has been included in a book for the Covid-19 appeal, Rosen also wrote the foreword for the book.

Inspirational Message By Detroit Poet Gains National Attention

A rapper and poet in Detroit has hit the headlines for his inspirational message, and it all began when an influential celebrity gave him a call.

Jason Obanner, or Kid Jay as he likes to be called, has been rapping since he was a kid, he is ow 20 and in the last few years, his career has really taken off. He is known not only for his message always being a positive one but also for the lack of profanity that he uses.

Kid Jay received a call to take part in the show “Mentoring Mondays” which was hosted on Zoom. The topic under conversation was “Black Lives Matter” and he took the time to read his poem about police brutality, the deaths of George Floyd and Arbery.