Join environmental poet of the year at Wordsworth Grasmere

The first, a Poetry Writing Workshop, offers an immersive writing experience in which participants will explore ways in which to write constructively about the natural world at a time when it is so vulnerable. It will look at the ways in nature can be portrayed in a poem; learning poetic technique, content and form. The session is open to all, from enthusiastic beginners to seasoned writers. The event takes place from 2pm – 4pm on Saturday, September 13.

In the evening, from 6pm - 7.30pm, Ben Verinder will return for an evening of nature-themed poetry. Ben will be reading from his award-winn1ing collection How to Save a River, alongside other Lake District-themed work. This event includes a Q&A hosted by Michael McGregor, Robert Woof Director at Wordsworth Grasmere, as well as a drinks reception and an opportunity to purchase a copy of this beautiful limited edition collection.

Tickets and more information can be found at wordsworth.org.uk

How to save a river

Take a young girl, six or seven,

and have her mother make one last sweep

of a net in the black pool:

a mating pair of crested newts.

Bring them home and build an aquarium

long before this is against the law

where the female lays little by little

the white embryos in a sac among the weeds.

Wait seventy years

and the woman who was the girl will recall

the larvae, keel-tailed, feathery

and so lucid she could watch their bodies working

within them, the daphnia packed

into the gut, as they gushed into efts –

a word you’ll think translucent.

Then she’ll describe how this morning

she was at the river early

taking a sample of the sediment,

light through the trees an immersion,

how everything comes back to water.