Pensioner poet Don Read is on a mission to cheer up West Bridgford and put a smile on its residents' faces.
The 83-year-old, of Holm Road, has penned around 50 humorous poems on everything from Strictly Come Dancing to iPods and manicures - and now he wants them to be displayed in coffee shops off Central Avenue.
The grandfather-of-eight also has ambition to sell his poems on laminated A4 sheets of paper as alternatives to greetings cards.
He said: "First and foremost I want my poems to make people smile but if I can get them to part with some money too, then that is a bonus.
"A greetings card has a finite life, when Christmas is over you throw your Christmas cards into the bin and the same with birthdays but a laminated poem can be kept and displayed in your home - like in the toilet for example."
Mr Read, who has decorated his walking stick with copies of his work, has been writing poems since the sixties but began dedicating more time to it after his daughter asked him to write a poem about one of his grandchildren - he now writes one a week.
He said: "I don't really think up topics, it really is just what pops into my head.
"It is a pretty bizarre world in which we live which is why the poems feature the things they do."
Mr Read is no stranger to writing; in the 1970s he penned a song called Drifting Dreaming for Grammy winning singer Cleo Laine and jazz flutist James Galway.
Cleo and Mr Read stayed in contact over the years and until recently exchanged Christmas cards and after sending his poem I Left My Heart in Wolverhampton to Cleo it was displayed on the singer's Facebook page.
Mr Read hopes to sell his poems fro around £3 each and is looking for a greetings card company to join forces with.
