Ash, oak and willow herb
Woven flight of swift bird
Smell of green in warmth pervading
Circle songs of birds uplifting
Happy Moment by Gaby Armstrong
National Meadows Day saw a suite of events across the country of which Poetry Pin played its part, as a word and poetry workshop in the Willow Cathedral on Longrun Meadow, Taunton. The Cathedral is slowly becoming Taunton's soft alternative venue, it sits on a flood plain beside the river Tone and through summer months is the place to stop and enjoy the buzz of the meadow and the gentle passing of time. For me the Cathedral is an ideal spot to run a Poetry Pin workshop too, getting passing families to add a few words to the canvas of 'place' and respond with words to the environment and then use the Poetry Pin Engine to geo tag them to the location they are stood.
Those attending or just passing by and curiously drawn in generally don't consider themselves as poets, but when they leave after tagging a few words to the landscape, they feel a little less 'not a poet' if that is at all possible. I am constantly surprised by the ingenuity and creativity of strangers, and it is rare they don't surprise themselves a little too!
Minky Mostly slide slinky not slowly
Two whippets fast darting past fluttering butterflies
Finally tired
Lazy through the towering willow lying on a grassy pillow
In a lattice of shadows the two dogs eventually rest.
Longrun Whippets by Hannah and Jess
There are about two dozen poems tagged to Longrun Meadow now, of which these posted are part of, but I will leave you with this one of my composition which was drawn from a list of plants which have become resident in the meadow as only a few years ago the area was arable farm land. The names of these plants lends to poetry with ease, and so there are a few compositions on this theme.
Wavy Bitter-cress is here
Down by your knees beside the Common Mouse-ear
Or over near the Smooth Hawks-beard
Aside Dandelion and the Crested Dog's-tail
Or was that the Meadow Foxtail
No definitely beside the Ribwort Plantain
But you've got to root and scour through the brush
And careful you don't squash the Bulbous buttercup
Not to be confused with its sibling of course
Its a little sensitive to naming
Miss spelling is rude, inconsiderate and a little shaming
It must be identified right and true
This is the right plant, through and through
But I think I am more convinced as to what it is not
So yes, right here
It's definitely the Bitter-cress we've got
I think
Wavey Bitter-cress by Christopher Jelley
The day was facilitated by Arts Taunton and InspirED - the educational arm of Somerset Arts Works and designed to engage with individuals and families with word and place during National Meadows Day 1st July 2017
More about National Meadows Day
All poems written on the day were also geo-located to the meadow at
and are available to view for free in location they were posted at this web address.
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More info about Arts Taunton