Armitage celebrates spring joy with a climate warning on World Poetry Day

He imagines blossom as fancy dress, as an artist or a magician lighting up countryside, town and city. Yes, it is a thing of beauty and joy but also, sometimes, a pertinent reminder of changing climate patterns.

- Steven Morris

On World Poetry Day and to celebrate spring, the poet laureate, Simon Armitage, has launched a collection celebrating the blossom that sweeps through the UK at this time of year.

Working with the National Trust, Armitage has spent a year travelling the country visiting blossom sites: gardens and remote rural locations, but also parks and shopping precincts. The result is a volume of poetry and the release of an EP by his band, LYR, both called Blossomise, which he hopes will inspire the people of the UK to immerse themselves in this year's spring spectacle. The collection is illustrated by the printmaker Angela Harding.