Join The Atkinson for a celebration to mark National Poetry Day and their exhibition The Poetry of Trees. Gillian Floyd and Gina Riley will be delivering their poetry in The Atkinson’s art gallery.
Ticket price includes a hot drink and a piece of cake.
This event is delivered in partnership with Sefton Libraries.
Due to illness, unfortunately Gina Riley will not be joining us for this event. Gillian Floyd will continue to deliver her poetry. We wish Gina a speedy recovery.
Exhibition: The Poetry of Trees
4 June 2022 – 11 March 2023
Free Entry. Mon-Sat. 10am-4pm. Closed Sundays & Bank Holidays.
Trees have inspired artists and writers for millennia. A range of artistic perspectives help us reconnect with the natural world, through painting, sculpture, and digital artworks.
-
- The Poetry of Trees
About National Poetry Day
National Poetry Day is the annual mass celebration on the first Thursday of October that encourages everyone to make, experience and share poetry with family and friends.
Each year we come together because voices, words and stories help to bridge understanding in our community.
National Poetry Day generates an explosion of activity nationwide, thousands of amazing events across the UK – on doorsteps and at kitchen tables, in gardens and streets, in schools, libraries and public spaces both online and offline – all celebrating poetry’s power to bring people together.
The Day starts conversations, it encourages love of language and, best of all, it’s open to absolutely everyone to join in. Whether quietly or noisily in rewarding and enjoyable ways. As the artform’s most visible moment, it showcases the ways in which poetry adds value to society.
About Gillian Floyd
I write poetry and have had poems published in various children’s anthologies. I also have a great deal of experience of performing my poetry in venues such as the Everyman Bistro (Liverpool), the Bluecoat (Liverpool), the Poetry Cafe (London) and the Natural History Museum (London). My subject matter is largely Nature, with trees being a particular specialism
How to Talk to Trees by Gillian Floyd
Use no words. Instead lie down
Upon the grass, beneath
The swaying boughs. Look up.
Keep looking up. Pay attention
To everything you see. Disregard
All thought and the sense
You should be somewhere else doing
Something else: this has its own
Significance. Do not move.
Do not care. Simply be aware
Of trees…
Until, at last,
Your mind starts growing, branching out,
Extending upwards gradually
Towards the sky, towards the sun. Feel it sprout
Leaf
on leaf
on leaf…
Let it grow
As high as it will go, as wide
As it will reach – then do
No more. Nothing.
Only stay
Right where you are, your mind
Mingling with the quiet air
And the quiet light… Now you will find
That, without really trying,
You’ll be talking in a language trees
Can understand – not our language
Of words, but their language
Of peace.
