Not every poem begins as a poem. Some begin as a recipe, a rumour, a family saying, a football chant, a shopping list, the wrong lyrics to a favourite song, or something your grandmother always said.

This workshop raids the living archive of stories, rituals, songs, sayings and everyday objects, asking what becomes possible when words are treated less as property than as part of a commonwealth. Through playful writing experiments, shared acts of making and small exchanges between participants, we’ll build a temporary commons of stories, images and borrowed phrases.

Together we’ll experiment with language as something carried, translated, gifted and held in our care, discovering how poems emerge from the lives words have lived before they reached us.

Expect playful, occasionally odd writing experiments, moments of collaboration and opportunities to borrow, gift or carry language for someone else. Equally, we’ll honour the right to keep a story in your own care. Listening, observing and choosing not to share are all part of the workshop.