Love is.... an interactive book of poems from our young people for #CareDay21

Love Is...

a collection of poems exploring what love means to us

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This is a multimedia book with music, audio, writing, pictures and film.

Click the symbol to enjoy your multimedia experience. (or go to Five Rivers Child Care Issuu - online if you are reading a printed version) Being loved seems like the most basic ‘right’ for children and young people. Yet it is not specifically listed in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. At first this confused me, but the more I thought about it, the more I realised you can’t make it law to love someone. In the Introduction of the Convention, it says “the child... should grow up in a family environment, in an atmosphere of happiness, love and understanding”. I wondered how it was possible to judge if the love and care for our children was good enough and who would do this?

The more I thought about it, the more confused I became. I wondered over and over what love meant to me – I could not pin it down. I was curious and perhaps a little worried about what the children and young people would feel about this – what does love mean to them as individuals?

The children and young people revealed to me in their creative and artistic explorations, that love is obvious and uncomplicated. The children spoke clearly and lovingly about the environments around them, and about how these environments create the conditions in which love can be felt, and can flourish and thrive. They saw and felt love everywhere and in many things - food, the colour of a sunrises and animals.

These poems have helped me to understand what love means to me and for this I am grateful.

Olivia Doherty, Project Lead

Foreword from Poet Clare Shaw I believe that words have the power to help us, and to heal us. So do people.

When I went through tough times, the staff and friends who helped me most showed me compassion, loyalty, friendship and warmth. They made me safe, cared about, liked and valued. I guess you could say I felt loved.

I’ve lived and worked in services for a long time now, and I’m so glad that Five Rivers is thinking about love, and about how we all support and care for each other. Love is simple and complicated, and poetry can be a great way of making sense of it, and sharing our ideas about it with each other. And in these times, creative writing offers a powerful way of staying connected across the distance.

I loved working with young people from across the UK and Ireland in the “Love Is...” creative writing workshop. We wrote and read together; we listened to each other. And we created brilliant poetry about love.

Mention “love poetry” to most people, and they’ll think of love hearts, romance, red roses. But our poetry is full of animals, and snow, it travels round the world.

Our poetry is electric; sometimes it hurts. Our poetry is full of love of place and weather and colour and food and songs and sports, as well as love of people.

Our poetry reflects the fact that love takes many forms, and that our lives can be full of it, and that we all deserve it.

Thank you for reading our words.

Foreword

‘What’s love got to do with it?’

By Richard Cross (Head of Assessment & Therapy) I want to start by sending my gratitude for hearing the 'powerful messages' about love from all of the children and young people.

It is essential to 'hear' and communicate to the children and young people that we understand what is important to them.

and relationships. There were so many themes of 'feeling warm', ‘feeling safe', 'love is happy', ‘love is a beach’. Every voice has a powerful message for us to hear and reflect on.

These messages also connect to our development of the understanding of 'love' As I sit and think about the whole concept of during our childhood. This initially begins 'love', a notion that even adults find difficult by children experiencing the actions and to describe. The dictionary defines it as "an intense feeling of deep affection". I am not sure experiences outside themselves (externally focused) before moving towards being more I would have landed on that exact definition. internally focused.

It is complicated, and ‘love’ is a very personal This highlights the power of the 'Love concept connected to positive feelings that Is' Campaign for #CareDay21 and the grow and develop through our experiences importance of creating opportunities for during our life journey. children and young people to express what Therefore, trying to come to a consensus may love means to them and what experiences be difficult. The powerful words of the children they 'associate' the word ‘love’ with. This may mean that children focus their concept of love provide a window to ensure the children and young people's lives have as much good stuff around objects or events in their poems, or experiences in relationships - or a mixture of around that connects to loving experiences

both. This is a process that is evolving for us all.

Experiencing moments of loving connection can help reinforce positive aspects of love.

to consider how we can create the loving experiences children deserve.

So, Love is… captures lots of crucial areas. It helps to capture the different experiences of children. It provides a sense of the 'good stuff' that we must seek to offer all children and young people. Childhoods provide an opportunity to experience being loved regardless of what has happened before.

Will Smith – Just the two of us (1997) I’m always here for you Look over your shoulder, I’ll be there Whatever you need Just call on me Whatever you need I’ll be there anytime You and I

Love and care have such amazing healing properties - it’s a magical thing. For all children and young people, the providing of loving experiences is one of the most important aspects of our development. This helps us develop not only the ability to experience love but to expand the capacity to love, and as a result, how to have healthy, positive experiences during our lives.

So, I want to give a shout out to the power of love. It provides a framework for adults

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Some poems are password protected, please contact olivia.doherty@five-rivers.org for more information

Love is Snow If love is snow, I want to be the kind of person who is always glad when it snows when the air comes alive, when you wake to a different light.

If love is snow, I want to say YES to sledging even if I’m eighty, and my hips hurt, even if it’s late and the moon is out, the fields are bright and if a snowball slaps me – whack – In the back of my head, I don’t want to be the kind of person who storms off, muttering about kids.

If love is snow I want fistfuls of the stuff for myself.

I don’t care if it stings or if the trains are cancelled.

I don’t mind being late for work,

I want the whole town to wake to snow, to run out with our eyes full of wonder, ready to jump right in.

If love is snow I want to stay the kind of person who finds it beautiful, even when I fall.

Clare Shaw

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Some poems are password protected, please contact olivia.doherty@five-rivers.org for more information

Love is...

Love is about the people you care about.

Love is a beautiful sunset on a summer’s day.

Love is about meeting new people.

Love is about taking things beyond your imagination.

Love might be a day you like.

Love is a day on a beach with the sun shining over you.

Love is about peace.

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Some poems are password protected, please contact olivia.doherty@five-rivers.org for more information

Love is...

Love is silence Love is birdsong Love is buttered toast Love is simple Love is what I feel for my dog Love is bright yellow Love is a gentle breeze Love is a distant lawnmower Love is not difficult Love is forgiving

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Some poems are password protected, please contact olivia.doherty@five-rivers.org for more information

Love is...

Love is my little wolf - vulnerable, his kind brown eyes.

Love is green, lichen – ancient, bold and tenacious.

Love is his snuffles deep in his sleep, his chirping like the early birds.

Love is the rain gossiping on a canvas roof.

Love is the whisper of the bracken and the unfurling of the fern, the gentle waltz of bog cotton.

Love is the slap of my father's turf spade, the last breath of his accordion, the smell of whiskey in his tumbler.

Love is the call of the corncrake, to the tune of the curlew and the dance of the lapwing.

Love is the cuckoo singing in May and whistling in June.

Love is food, charred over an open fire with friends and song.

Love is late, it goes on and on and is tall.

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Some poems are password protected, please contact olivia.doherty@five-rivers.org for more information

Love is... love is singing Love is family Love is sports Love is going on holidays Love is rainbow Love is being in care Love is being safe Love is a relationship Love is food Love is sweets Love is sleep Love is sad when you miss someone Love is what makes our house a home Love is a future Love is happy Love is you Love is love Love is warm Love is animals Love is lifestyle

Love is adoption Love is friends Love is playing Love is being treated right Love is all lives matter Love is surprises Love is gifts Love is in the heart Love is a journey Love is not being hurt Love is passion

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Some poems are password protected, please contact olivia.doherty@five-rivers.org for more information

Love is...

Love was when I came into foster care and when I met my foster mum.

Love is when she adopts me and becomes my real mum.

Love is friendship.

Love is being happy.

Love is sad sometimes when you think of memories of your old life.

Love is not being bullied by the people around you.

And also love is love.

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Some poems are password protected, please contact olivia.doherty@five-rivers.org for more information

Love is...

Love is my favourite place to go.

Love is taking my dogs on new adventures.

Love is my family, they don’t have to be blood.

Love is my favourite food though I have that many I can’t decide.

Love isn’t those noisy seagulls stealing my food.

Love isn’t just a word, it’s more powerful than that.

You don’t spell love you feel it.

Love is different for both you and I. I love fresh fruit but some people don’t and that’s okay.

Everybody feels love differently.

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Some poems are password protected, please contact olivia.doherty@five-rivers.org for more information

Love is...

Love is not standing alone it’s being together talking and laughing.

Love is every type of animal the dogs that give you wet sloppy kisses, cats that meow and purr for attention.

Love is my family, the ones I chose.

They stood by me and helped me grow Love is not walking away in hard times.

Love is not harm or sadness.

It is standing with each other and supporting everyone.

Love is knowing your own worth, seeing how amazing you are.

Love is never settling for anyone who doesn’t appreciate you.

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Some poems are password protected, please contact olivia.doherty@five-rivers.org for more information

Love is...

Love is like a cloud.

Love is like a rainbow.

Love is strong, love is fascinating, love is cool, love is a wave, love is around us in the air.

Love is like sand, love is history, love flows like electricity, love is an ocean.

Love feels like the sun shining on you, love is a sparkle, love is a firework, love is everything to everyone.

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Some poems are password protected, please contact olivia.doherty@five-rivers.org for more information

Love is...

Peaceful, calm, bright and crisp like starry winter's night after a deep falling of snow, clear and quiet.

Sometimes slippery, not taken for granted and care is needed, but when shared with friends and family, love, just like a game in the snow, is full of warmth.

I hear love in the sounds of my surroundings, in the noises in my home; my kids inside, the cows outside!

I love my place.

I've had two places to love and call home, home now and home where I came from.

Only an hour away, across hills, over fields and around the deep lake.

This is an ancient land where I am from, where history lies and time carries on.

I am part of that history too.

I feel fortunate that I can cross these lands and return home when I want to.

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Some poems are password protected, please contact olivia.doherty@five-rivers.org for more information

Love is...

Love is winter Love is snow Love is warm Love is a rabbit Love is not cold and damp Love is blue Love is hot chocolate Love is Fuerteventura Love is people laughing Love is swimming Love is not odd socks

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Some poems are password protected, please contact olivia.doherty@five-rivers.org for more information

Love is...

Love is a beautiful bright sunset warm against the skin.

Love is laughing with your friends.

Love is getting into fights with your siblings for no reason.

Love is caring for one another when life goes downhill.

Love is silent and calm like the highway at night.

Love is when you can express yourself.

Love is home.

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Some poems are password protected, please contact olivia.doherty@five-rivers.org for more information

Love is...

Love is a little black cat meowing at me for food.

Love is the Blackpool beach where once I stood.

Love is not too big or small, it is for all.

Love is the green colour in nature which will eventually denature Love is beautiful colours of the rainbow in a packet of Skittles.

Love is not like shattered glass bottles.

Love is not passing cars that disturb the tranquillity of rural life.

Love is just the right change in life.

Love is the ripe red colour of an apple.

Love is not a grapple.

Love is still water in a glass.

Love is not being embarrassed.

Love is the silver of the moon.

Love is the sun shining in June.

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Some poems are password protected, please contact olivia.doherty@five-rivers.org for more information

Love is…

A family that sticks together.

Love is the colour of the night sky and the starry night, love is watching the snow fall.

Love is the tapping of the rain on the roof.

Love is eating chocolate while watching my favourite film.

Love is feeling free and drinking tea.

Love is random but never missed.

Love is the sand scrunching under my bare feet.

Love is the lush green grass and wildlife.

Love is the beating heart.

Love is not always shown but is known.

Love is...

Love is chips in paper on a Friday night.

Love is the cottage, love is the sheep and the fields.

Love is the cows that surrounded me.

Love is not the farmer.

Love is dog, love is his head on the boy’s shoulder.

Love is unknown things.

Love is barking in the night, love is wasp.

Love is green like moss, I don’t have the words to describe it.

Love is snow.

Love is the world all clean and bright, love is the mistakes wiped out.

Love is the world made silent.

Love is the world made soft.

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Some poems are password protected, please contact olivia.doherty@five-rivers.org for more information

For more information on how you can get involved in projects like this and help us to improve things for children like you who are fostered or in residential care.

Please contact: Participation@five-rivers.org or visit www.five-rivers.org or visit our online media platform https://issuu.com/fiveriverschildcare

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