MAT LLOYD

In these uncertain times I want to spread a little love and positivity.

I sent this hand typed and signed piece to my friend Scott Partington earlier this week and if you’d like your own one of a kind piece (for free!) simply find a lil poem I’ve posted on my Instagram @matlloydpoet either by trawling my feed, by searching the hashtag #notadaywithoutaline, or by sending me the name of the poem from one of my books via instagram DM and I will send it out over the coming weeks for as long as I have stamps and of course the posties are still working.

All I ask is that you do something similar to keep people smiling in these crazy times!  I've seen so much positivity online I really think this may be a real sea change for not only the UK but the whole world.

Afraid it's UK only at the moment due to postage costs.

Ok, first things first.  I am writing this on my MacBook Pro, and I love my MacBook Pro!  I use my MacBook Pro to edit photos, videos, podcasts and sometimes a little music.  It's awesome and I genuinely believe if my house burnt down, I'd only be gutted about losing my skateboard (of course) and my laptop...everything else can burn.

The only problem I have with my laptop is that I just can't seem to write new poetry on it.  By that I mean, for some reason, typing ideas/lines for a new piece on my laptop, seems to sap the creativity out of me, and I find myself staring at a blank screen.  Seriously I can have a great idea (of course I'd say that) and by the time I've loaded up 'Word', it's just floated out of my head.  It's like staring at my laptop screen automatically gives me 'writers block', well 'poetry block' to be exact.
Like many writers I tend to opt for a pad & pen, I'm rarely without one close at hand, but I do see more and more poets writing into their phones.  I've done quite a few gigs recently where poets will stand up and read directly from their phones (it infuriates me when they pause to scroll down).  I use my phone as an absolute last resort when it comes to writing on the go as it seems to have the same effect as my laptop.

To make me sound even more kooky (read eccentric), and I'm not try to be 'that guy', about a year ago I bought a typewriter.  Yep an old skool Seiko Silver Reed SR180 Deluxe, it's older than me and I love it!  Maybe even more than my MacBook.  It doesn't seem to have the same effect that writing on my laptop has and whilst it can be frustrating to have to type something out repeatedly due to the lack of a delete button and my sausage fingers, this repetition is helping me learn the piece!  It also looks pretty great on my Instagram too!  Obviously it hasn't replaced the need for my note pad and certainly isn't as portable as my laptop but there is something pleasing about banging away on those keys.  And if like me, your handwriting fluctuates from readable to what the fuck is that mess - a typewriter makes a lot of sense.

Maybe I'm just a paper and ink type of writer?  What's your choice? Are you a pen and paper writer or are you all about the digital?

PS. a lot of people ask me about the note book in the picture, it's from Explorer Press.