On Tuesday I was part of something really special - the Rain of Poems which took place over Jubilee Gardens on London's South Bank. The gardens were packed with people waiting for the helicopter to arrive and drop 100,000 poems into the sky. These poems would include poets from every country competing at the Olympics next month. At 9.15pm the helicopter arrived to cheers from the crowd, hovered and then the first batch of poems were let loose like a black mass of flies. The low dark clouds made it difficult to see at times, then suddenly bookmark shaped poems ticker-taped down and everyone began to run trying to catch one. It helped to be tall and pushy! I was far too polite to begin with then realised that I was going to miss out if I didn't just go for it. Even so people seemed to get there before me. It was everyone for themselves and you took your life in your hands! I complained to one guy who snapped up a poem just before me, that he had loads and I had none. He must have felt sorry for me because he handed me one! I still wanted to get one for myself so I went with the crowds as more poems were released (this happened over the period of half an hour). I am embarrassed to say that as I jumped a bank/wall I fell in my hurry to get a poem I saw drop. I scrambled up and grabbed it almost on my knees!! Later I managed to get another by putting my foot on one.
Then it was all over and everyone clapped as the helicopter whirred away from us. My husband managed to get two poems (I ended up with three). Hope you like the photos and the video from YouTube. The experience was great - something I will remember forever. Rain of Poems has happened in other countries including Poland and Berlin. What a unique idea and such fun.
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