WRITINGS

Poems in response

Here, three acclaimed poets associated with The Poetry Exchange – Karen McCarthy Woolf, Sarah Salway and Fiona Bennett - write new poems in response to conversations with readers about the poem that has been a friend to them. The original conversations can all be found on our podcast.

Ars Poetica 101 by Karen McCarthy Woolf

Poem in response to ‘Ars Poetica #100 – I Believe’ by Elizabeth Alexander – Poem as Friend to John

Let Me Be A Rose Today by Sarah Salway

Poem in response to ‘I am Like a Rose’ by D.H. Lawrence – Poem as Friend to Mary Anne

Adaptation by Fiona Bennett

Poem in response to ‘The moth’ by Miroslav Holub – Poem as Friend to Claudia

Essays & reflections

In the Company of Poems – ‘the truths of outrage and the truths of possibility’ (Muriel Rukeyser)

In this piece, commissioned by the National Centre for Writing, Fiona Bennett reflects on the company and companionship of poetry during lockdown.

‘Vibrations danced between us’

In this piece, written for Manchester Poetry Library, Fiona Bennett reflects on a moving day of poetry and conversation at Manchester Central Library in collaboration with Manchester Metropolitan University.

The Poetry Exchange: a response by Karen McCarthy Woolf

In this piece, written in the earliest days of The Poetry Exchange, acclaimed poet Karen McCarthy Woolf reflects on the experience of reading and being in conversation with a poem as a friend...