Everyday life, mental health, and the rhythms of the city captured in verse
Pete Scott is part of the quieter but no less vital strain of voices on Liverpool’s poetry
scene. An autistic poet, he draws much of his inspiration from the observations of
everyday life, from the rhythms of a city and its people, and from the challenges and
complexity of mental health. He’s taken to open‐mics around Liverpool to share his
work, and is currently working on his first poetry collection — while also developing a
one‐man show that explores autism and the everyday in equal measure.
The poem Pete submits, My Liverpool, reflects on the city he grew up in: its streets, its
unspoken stories, what we see and what often goes unnoticed. Short, direct and
unadorned, the piece doesn’t rely on flourish — but on clarity. It presents Liverpool as
lived‐in: familiar, flawed, stubborn, loving. Through Pete’s eyes, the city isn’t a backdrop
or a romanticised symbol: it is home, history, memory.
For a writer whose personal journey includes neurodivergence and a close awareness
of mental‐health struggles, poetry becomes more than performance: it becomes a way
of processing, of making sense of noise and disquiet. Recent research and writing about
neurodivergent poets suggests that poetry — with its patterns, repetition, and rhythm —
can offer a particularly powerful medium for autistic expression.
My Liverpool sits firmly in that tradition. In its modest length and straightforward
language, there’s room for the reader to breathe — to imagine their own paths down the
city’s lanes, to witness the small contradictions of belonging. What Pete offers isn’t
polished postcard‐Liverpool, but something earlier, rougher and realer: a glimpse of the
city through eyes shaped by sensitivity, difference, and honesty.
In this year’s 52 for 26 Poetry Project, Pete Scott’s poem adds a quietly urgent voice —
a reminder that poetry in Liverpool isn’t always loud. Sometimes, it simply listens.
My Liverpool
My Liverpool is where I was born
my Liverpool is where I loved
my Liverpool is where I lost
my Liverpool is where I got hurt
my Liverpool has a voice to be heard
my Liverpool has two birds looking over the city
my Liverpool is the place where I developed myself
my Liverpool is where I saw friends come and go
my Liverpool stands up for it self
my Liverpool on a Saturday night enough said
my Liverpool 97 people never came home
my Liverpool is filled with a musical tune
my Liverpool is a place where I look out to the Mersey
thinking about the trade coming in and out
my Liverpool is where I call home
Pete Scott
