65 Poems Workshop

Barrington Gordon led a riveting 65 poems workshop, focusing on constructing a draft for the Trees Please, Poetry Please call-out, which will see poems dedicated to a specific tree to be recorded on TreePlotter and our website for The Zephaniah Tree Trail.

Barrington opened with a soothing mindfulness exercise, focusing on a particular tree of our choice, imaging our senses reacting to its presence, eventually becoming the tree itself, and visualising Benjamin walking over to us with the thoughts and feelings it invoked. This helped the group with the next part of the session, where we constructed mind maps or lists to pick out keywords, phrases, and ideas from our imagination and visualisation.

We all wrote our first drafts of Benjamin and nature-themed poems, with help from the prompts from Barrington, and what wonderful were words were written! Each writer bought a unique flavour to their craft, and Pat De Whalley wasted no time with sharing her playful poem with us the next day:

Now that I’m older
Dreads in my hair
Many words I’ve penned

Will you still remember me now I am gone
Wealth of stories now troubled by none
Vegan, Dyslexic, Poet, Black Man
I’ve been called them all
BUT
Will you now grieve me
Will you still read me
Now I’m 64 +1

Please submit your poems here

65 poems for 65 trees for 65 years

Writers Without Borders recently invited Charlotte McDermott, our Communications Officer, to attend one of their writing workshops held at The Birmingham Hippodrome. Why? We recently launched the poetry competition for The Zephaniah Forest, where we are calling for 65 poems for the 65 trees for the 65 years of Benjamin Zephaniah’s life.

Writers without borders 65 poems workshop, The Zephaniah Forest
Writers without borders 65 poems workshop, The Zephaniah Forest
Writers without borders 65 poems workshop, The Zephaniah Forest
Writers without borders 65 poems workshop, The Zephaniah Forest
Writers without borders 65 poems workshop, The Zephaniah Forest
Writers without borders 65 poems workshop, The Zephaniah Forest
Writers without borders 65 poems workshop, The Zephaniah Forest
Writers without borders 65 poems workshop, The Zephaniah Forest

A message from Charlotte: “A humongous thanks and praise to the Writers Without Borders; they made me feel incredibly welcome with their warm and vibrant personalities, and after many years away from the poetry world it was thrilling to experience it again. Thank you to Barrington, Vivian, Pat, Fiona, Sindy, Sayyara, and Anne for returning our enthusiasm regarding The Zephaniah Forest, the beautiful sentiments surrounding Benjamin Zephaniah, and the upcoming poetry submissions – that I am looking forward to reading with great vigour. Good luck with your approaching performances, and we hope to work with you again soon!”