The street poet bringing people tears of joy

When people think of street performers, poetry writing is rarely the first thing that comes to mind.

Nathan Rodney-Jones is trying to change that, using a vintage typewriter to craft bespoke poems on the street in Norwich.

The 22-year-old, from Braunton in Devon, studied creative writing at the University of East Anglia and says he wants to make the art form more accessible.

I spent an afternoon with the self-described poetry busker at Norwich Market, and watched as his variety of verses reduced people to tears.

Growing up in North Devon, Rodney-Jones said he always loved telling stories and started writing poetry as a teenager.

He was drawn to the idea of working on the streets because of its "rawness", he explained.

Laura Leate, 37, approached his table asking for a poem about her cat, Deedee, who had died.

After a few minutes of questions, Rodney-Jones started typing, and penned the following:

Deedee

Here, the house is just that little

more quiet, cat hairs still

lost in this room.

A memory is catching on the mind,

a snatch of a lost time, a friend

still crying out despite time

spooling out.

Eleven years and this little face

met your eye for the first time.

All the hours spent in the warm embrace

little spoon cuddling like time had nothing

but room to give.

And now you can still almost

hear her lapping at the tap,

and here, she is with you

here, she finds that embrace once again.

As Rodney-Jones finished reading the poem, Leate said it was "beautiful", began to cry and the pair hugged.

"From that short interaction you have captured everything so wonderfully and I'll treasure this forever," she said.

Rodney-Jones continued: "I wanted to... take poetry out there and kind of take it off the pedestal and just talk to people and make poetry out of their experiences."

He has written more than 700 street poems and said he works on a "pay-what-you-will" basis.

"I don't like the idea that poetry and the arts are inaccessible," he said.

"I think the weirdest was a guy came over to me once and he wanted a poem about a purple lobster who had to stop playing American football because he got run over by a transit van."

He says that as he scribes his ballads, he is always trying to work out whether the person is genuinely interested in poetry.

"If they are into poetry, I can be more suggestive," he said.

Ted Leggett, 45, bought a poem for his wife's birthday.

"Watching a man use a typewriter is nice to do these days as well, isn't it?" he remarked.

Rodney-Jones said he usually took under five minutes to create his custom poems using the typewriter, and enjoyed how it forced him to work quickly.

The machinery gave his poems a "vintage charm" and encouraged spontaneity, he explained.

"Sometimes I write a poem and they don't like it, or it doesn't connect with their experience, or it's supposed to be funny and they don't find it funny. And then they're normally very, very polite," he said.

"But just occasionally you write something that does hit them up... which is kind of why I do this, really, for those moments."

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