A WEEK of literary adventures came to a colourful close on Friday afternoon after poet Ash Dickinson pulled out all the stops to bring the Swindon Youth Festival of Literature to a close by inspiring pupils to be passionate about poetry.

Packing in performances at both the Commonweal School and Dorcan Academy, the poet revealed he hadn’t always had a way with words.

He told pupils: “When I was your age I didn’t write poetry, I didn’t even like poetry. I got this late phase when I was in my late teens where my relationships were rubbish, I hated my parents and I even wondered why that horse was looking at me funny.”

Realising he needed a creative outlet to release some of his negativity he joined a writing class, where he regaled his fellow writers – all of whom were several decades older than him – with suitable dark and dreary poems. “They would pat me on the head and say – just keep going Ash,” he said.

“I have gone from that to making a living solely from writing poetry for the last eight years. I have had a book published and a second one on its way, and came second in a UK poetry slam. I was robbed.

“It is never too late to discover poetry, if you’re not into it hopefully at some point in your life poetry will find you and I hope that at some point this afternoon you will like poetry a little bit more than when you came in.”

He then performed a number of his self-penned poems – using his fast-paced delivery which had the pupils transfixed, including one about a purple coat he had worn to Dorcan Academy last year which he found to contain a bleached-white duck, a six foot ten man and a 30-something professional woman.

He also revealed that inspiration could strike at any time, including recently when he found himself on a remote railway platform in Devon or Cornwall – he couldn’t recall which – when it suddenly and unexpectedly started to snow. He caught glimpse of a young boy who was both punching and eating the flakes at the same time. “I watched him for a bit then the train came along and I flicked my laptop on and started writing,” he said.

He also received rapturous applause for his poem inspired by Swindon’s twinning with Walt Disney World in Florida. He said: “Really, when you think about it – they are very similar. I go to a lot of different towns and cities and they all start to look the same, but when I come to Swindon town centre it’s as if I could be in Disney World,” he told the pupils, tongue firmly in cheek “They’re so similar, it’s just the same!.”