Poet's work to be showcased at Rushden Lakes

Launching today (Monday) Poetry in Public is a display of James’ work and will be located retail park's Garden Square.

It focuses on raising awareness of mental health and depression through the power of words and James himself will be visiting in person on Saturday (January 11).

James, who is from Northampton and has lived with depression himself, found poetry to have a hugely positive effect in helping himself and others, bringing comfort and support for those in a similar boat.

His work has already appeared in various locations around London as well as some areas of Australia and USA.

Donna French, centre manager at Rushden Lakes, said: “We’re delighted to be working with James, especially as he is planning to visit us in person.

"We’re particularly excited because while he is here, he will be taking time to write one of his of his incredible pieces of work for people to enjoy when they visit the Garden Square.

“We hope that the exhibition will offer our shoppers time to not only reflect on James’ work but also find inspiration in the words they read. It will certainly be a privilege to see him in action.”

James said: “I wanted to do something different with my poetry and create something that made people stop and think: ‘I relate to that. I needed to see that today’.

“It all started as sort of a social experiment on the London Underground a year ago, and to see how much it’s taken off since then is really staggering.

“Poetry for me is an outlet, a way to get rid of all the heaviness and process different emotions, so the fact I have the chance to help give other people this same outlet is very humbling.”