I was brought up in a small town in the Cotswolds and from the age of 9, I travelled to school in Oxford on the train, and then a bus. I travelled on Great Western Railway (GWR) and it totally fuelled my love of trains. Around the same time, I started a poetry book, optimistically numbering an index from one to ninety-five, but somehow only managed to fill three pages of poems. To be fair, there might be a very good reason for this!
Thankfully, my poetry improved a little, but it's not an avenue I have ventured down very often! Results of a recent survey show that over a third of Brits feel they have lost their creativity since becoming an adult. Thankfully, my blog helped me to find my creative outlet and I am eternally grateful for it. To help adults find their creativity, GWR has launched an Inspired Lines campaign. The campaign encourages you to be inspired by the fabulous views on the journey on any GWR line and put pen to paper and write a poem. Blur’s Alex James, who now resides in the West Country, was the first to use his inspiration to create a poem. GWR asks passengers to submit their own poem at GWR.com in order to win free travel on the GWR line. Alex James is also going to be a judge to the GWR competition.
I have decided not to write you a new poem, but have dug out the two poems I wrote in 'my book of poems' when I was 9, both simply titled 'Trains'. Enjoy!
I think you can possibly see that poetry has never been my strongest point! I can't vouch entirely, but I would take a guess that both of these poems were written on the GWR line on my way home from school. I really did love trains. I still do to be honest. Random fact is that I can still recite all the GWR stops from Oxford to Hereford. Another random fact is that I once took an injured pigeon on the train home from Oxford. Sadly Freddy (the pigeon) didn't live many days after that. I relied on those trains and loved that they gave me freedom to travel from such a young age.
If you want to be able to enjoy one of the fabulous GWR lines, then you can submit your own poem on the GWR website. The competition is open until November 3rd and the first 50 entries will win a free journey of their choice with the overall winner winning a year’s free travel on a GWR line of their choice.
Disclosure: This is a sponsored post with GWR.
