Mixed Borders

Stephanie Norgate
Garden: Fann Street Wilidlife Garden
The garden is part of the Barbican Estate and has been developed by
residents as a wildlife garden. The ivy covered cellars of the buildings
bombed in the Blitz are still visible and prompted many ideas, as I sat with
my notebook in the wild grass under the Barbican’s brutalist architecture.
For the OSGW, I was keen to gather the impressions of others. Visitors
and volunteers made notes on luggage tags which they tied to the ‘line of
poetry’, strung between elder trees. In return, I gave away postcards of
poems developed from the residency. The tags fluttered in the breeze,
testifying to flying visits and close observation, and attracted many
photographs. I’d made the rash promise of forming communal poems from
these contributions and of posting them on my website within a fortnight.
Saturday’s comments became a collective sestina. In a freer style, I made
an alternative poem, ‘Questions for a Garden’, from the same comments.
Sunday’s poem (in sevenlings) took longer; all three collective poems can
be seen at www.stephanienorgate.wordpress.co.uk with a blog about the
residency. The chats about wildlife and plants developed into a rhythm, a
kind of meditation through contact with strangers. I gave short readings of
paired poems at intervals, for instance reading ‘Brother Ivy’ by Denise
Levertov and then following it by my poem, ‘Grass’ (The Blue Den,
Bloodaxe). Whether the foxes in their den or the pigeons on the path
appreciated hearing poetry, I don’t know, but the human audience was
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