I chose to develop my creative piece based on a conversation I personally witnessed online between two residents in a local care home where I have previously volunteered, whilst shadowing a GP over the Christmas period. One resident was discussing how negative COVID-19 had been, with lots of people not sticking to rules, not helping others and only looking after themselves and their immediate family. In contrast with this, the other resident thought that in fact the COVID-19 pandemic had brought out some of the best in society and we have seen the majority of people following the rules, a great deal of selflessness in communities and people doing everything they can to help people in need.

It struck me how different these views were, despite these two individuals being married for many years and often having similar views. From talking to friends, family and others, it seems lots of people have very different views on how society has been during the COVID-19 pandemic, despite maybe usually having similar opinion.

Due to this large difference in opinion between what would normally be two very similar individuals, I thought a reverse poem would be most suitable. A reverse poem conveys one message when read top to bottom, but the complete opposite when read bottom to top, even though it is effectively the same poem. I think this medium shows nicely quite how differently the same thing can be interpreted by different people.

I decided to make a subtitled video as well as narrating my poem for two reasons.

Firstly, as a nod to the two residents who inspired my piece as they are both quite deaf!

Secondly, I believe seeing the words as they are read can really enhance the listening experience as it engages two of your senses rather than just one.

I chose to put in background music to set the tone of the video and I think it can bring out stronger emotions than just voice alone.

It was also important to me to insert news-clips at the beginning of the video describing the death-counts. I did this as although the poem explores different perspectives as to how society has functioned together in the pandemic but I did not discuss the human cost of the pandemic and felt it was important to remember that at its heart, COVID-19 has cost millions of lives globally.