MARLBOROUGH Grandma Pat Knowles has got into the final of a poetry competition with a poem for her grand daughter.

During lockdown, Pat, 73, entered the contest organised by retirement developer McCarthy and Stone, which challenged residents to write a poem on the theme of ‘the pandemic’.

Pat, of Canning Place wrote ‘A Poem for Grace’. “Grace and her family live on the West Coast of Ireland so we don’t get to see each other often as it is – in fact, we haven’t seen each other since November last year – so she was very upset.”

Out of 250 poems submitted by McCarthy and Stone residents, Pat’s was one of 15 shortlisted entries.

Michael Bird, a writer and art historian who judged the competition, said: "I suppose I was expecting this theme to result in predominantly dark, melancholy poems. I was wrong. The poems covered the whole spectrum of feelings about our strange new world of social isolation, but there was lots of humour and optimism, and a real sense of putting this crisis into perspective.”

A Poem for Grace by Pat Knowles:

So here we are, another day

In our homes in the same old way

Luckily I can think of you

And look at Photos old and new

A Giggly baby, a Wobbly toddler

A great Artist and a Play Doh modeller

Then Handball fun and Football too

Your Concertina joined the queue

Of pleasure you gave us then

And now we give you ten out of ten

For keeping busy and doing your best

And staying away from the Covid pest

And when it has gone and we come out to play

We can all get together and shout “Hooray”!