A city gym worker who has spent lockdown fine tuning her poetry writing has been earning rave reviews for her works over the past 12 months.
Jena Jamieson has been inundated with requests for her sentimental verses which are now being read at funerals to celebrate the lives of those who have died during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The former Harris Academy pupil’s poetry career has been going from strength to strength after news of her talent spread across the city.
The 25-year-old wrote her first, sport-inspired piece when she was 10 but has since gone on to produce a range of works.
She said: “I’m a Dundee United fan and it was about Dundee getting relegated that season, which was in the early noughties.
“Even at that point when I was just a kid people said I had a talent for it, it was one of those things I’d maybe write a few verses and not go back to it for ages.”
It wasn’t until the passing of her grandmother, Jean, two years ago that people started to take notice of her talents.
Jena added: “A few of the poems I’d done were read out at my gran’s funeral, it was a just a few wee bits that I’d done in the past about how I felt and people again said they were really good.
“Since then the interest in my work has probably grown more and more. I’ve done verses for people’s Mother’s Day and others looking for verses to celebrate people’s lives.
“I’ve considered it an honour to compile these for folk.”
Jena, who was sitting under the watchful eye of the National Bard, Robert Burns in Albert Square, this week said her gym colleagues were “surprised” by her skills to pen a verse.
She added: “I’m a sport and exercise assistant at the University of Dundee and I think when my colleagues have read some of my works and they are surprised I’ve created it.
“The gym has obviously been closed with lockdown so I’ve been working on other verses for people during this time.
“Rather bizarrely English was never my favourite subject at school either so I’m not sure where the passion has come for writing verses.
“People keep telling me I should do more with my poetry and it’s certainly been a real privilege to pen the verses I have for people and provided some comfort to them.”