Mixed Borders

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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 66
kind. Streams of visitors poured through the unlocked gate of this usually secret garden into its wildflower meadow. They stopped to look and think, find words, and tie those words to a line, which, after all, is part of any poet’s process. 67
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Mixed Borders Poems from the London
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? Introduction - 7 Ann Perrin - 11
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! HOW DID OUR GARDEN GROW? You plan
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Ann Perrin Garden: Postman’s Park
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The handkerchief tree I sit under t
Page 15 and 16: Some read their poems there and the
Page 17 and 18: Pop-up garden in Canning Town For L
Page 19 and 20: Clarissa Aykroyd Garden: Red Cross
Page 21 and 22: Ellen Cranitch Garden: Christchurch
Page 23 and 24: The Acer and the Agapanthus The Ace
Page 25 and 26: Hilaire Garden: Morden Hall Park My
Page 27 and 28: Garden Swap Shop Who’ll swap comm
Page 29 and 30: Ian McEwen Garden: Arlington Square
Page 31 and 32: The Symmetry Breakfast Song Bilater
Page 33 and 34: John Grant Garden: Osterley House G
Page 35 and 36: Garden Poems A garden enclosed is m
Page 37 and 38: Julia Bird Garden: Nomura Internati
Page 39 and 40: A GUIDE TO THE ELEMENTS 1. Water Th
Page 41 and 42: on the wharves across the river, th
Page 43 and 44: three: the birds of prey in charge
Page 45 and 46: Mary Dickins Garden: St Mary’s Se
Page 47 and 48: What it takes? It took struggle and
Page 49 and 50: Chilli Pepper Rap We’re red hot c
Page 51 and 52: life” (Corinthians 3:6). In one w
Page 53 and 54: Natalie Shaw Garden: Fenton House G
Page 55 and 56: Penny Hope Garden: Red House Garden
Page 57 and 58: Trellis Honeysuckle weaves itself i
Page 59 and 60: The neighbour's cat, nameless intru
Page 61 and 62: Roomates (at Bunhill Fields) Sure,
Page 63 and 64: Sara Benaim Garden: The Olden Commu
Page 65: Turn a silver key in a green door i
Page 69 and 70: Perennial Cornflours in the Barbica
Page 71 and 72: She is the nest’s thought weaving
Page 73 and 74: with red-rimmed eyes, full of hints
Page 75 and 76: Churchyard Birds For centuries, roo
Page 77 and 78: William Henry Barrett Garden: Eastb
Page 79 and 80: Galencials 79
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Mixed Borders

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