The BBC's Get Creative Festival is back (17th - 25th March) and we want Weather Watchers to get involved.
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Get Creative and write a poem about the weather
The UK is bursting with culture. Some 10 million of us take part in a form of regular craft and activity each week, and that's thought to be a conservative estimate. We want to make that number even bigger, showcasing the enormous range of diversity and creativity across the UK. Get Creative provides a platform for that wonderful imagination, inventiveness and individuality; and helps others to get their creative juices flowing. Get Creative runs every year in the hope that millions of everyday artists will want to share their creativity and those who don't yet already take part in some form of art or craft will be encouraged to get started.
Last year Weather Watchers did a brilliant job of painting the weather as part of the Get Creative Festival. This year we're asking you to wax lyrical and write a poem about it. Your ode to the weather can be as long or short as you like, but please bear in mind that we may edit it.
The Wendy House submitted this painting of "Ladybower Reservoir [in Derbyshire] looking beautiful in the sunshine" last year
We will showcase some of the most interesting poems on the Weather Watchers website and on our Twitter feed during the Get Creative Festival week - and if that wasn't enough to entice you, our lovely weather presenters might even read a few of them out. Good luck and have fun!
Send your submissions to [email protected], putting "Get Creative poem" in the subject line. Please also include your Weather Watcher nickname and location.
Here are some Shakespearean weather quotes to inspire you
"But, soft! What light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun." (Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 2)
"Fair is foul, and foul is fair, hover through the fog and filthy air" (Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 1)
"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate" (Sonnet 18)
"Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May" (Sonnet 18)
"For the rain it raineth every day" (Twelfth Night, Act 5, Scene 1)
"Blow winds and crack your cheeks!" (King Lear, Act 3, Scene 2)
"Hey ho, the wind and the rain" (Twelfth Night, Act 5, Scene 1)
"Why should proud summer boast before the birds have any cause to sing?" (Love's Labour's Lost, Act 1, Scene 1)
"Such bursts of horrid thunder, Such groans of roaring wind and rain" (King Lear, Act 3, Scene 2)
"When shall we three meet again, in thunder, lightning, or in rain?" (Macbeth)
"Since the more fair and crystal is the sky, the uglier seem the clouds that in it fly" (Richard II)
"And, if possess'd, as soon decay'd and done, as is the morning's silver-melting dew against the golden splendor of the sun!" (The Rape of Lucrece)
"O, how shall summer's honey breath hold out against the wreckful siege of battering days" (Sonnet 65)
