Poems on Request at Remixed Borders

 Feeling exhilerated, exhausted, exfoliated by Poetry in the Garden, my poetry residency at Rainham Hall (part of Remixed Borders, thanks to Jesse the magical community gardener and all the great NT staff and voluteers at Rainham,  the Poetry School  and Open Garden Squares Weekend).

​I can't quite believe it's over - though I have promised to go back to the garden later this summer, to sit under a tree again and see if any more poems might arrive in my notebook. Or if not, to check how the insects are getting on in the Insect Mansion!

The weekend started slowly but really got going on the Sunday. I'd offered to write insta-poems for those who completed the Poetry Voyage (a quiz trail with poems planted on canes around the garden), so spent much time scratching my head and asking anyone nearby for a rhyme for lily, or compost, or herbaceous.

The poems on postcards were a sell-out success (an idea I picked up from fellow poets-in-residence in other gardens).  

​In the end the readings were impromptu, whenever there were enough people around who'd said they'd like to hear some poems. Amazingly, quite a few did! And several people brought their own poems along to show me, too.

I feel so lucky to have had this opportunity. I've learned about the hidden treasure of the garden at Rainham Hall, about how to organise a residency, how to write for a specific audience without forgetting to write for my own development too...and about 17th Century gardens 'in the Dutch style'. Amongst other things. 

​Now for a quick snooze. Just for a few moments...