Join the Oxford Poetry Library at Wytham Woods for The Lost Words workshop aimed at KS3 and KS4.

Wytham Woods is delighted to host a new workshop for secondary school students from the amazing Oxford Poetry Library on June 5th, from 1pm-4pm. OPL have adapted their highly-rated nature poetry workshop, inspired by “The Lost Words” by famous naturalist Robert Macfarlane and illustrator Jackie Morris, for a new age-group, and connecting with the school curriculum, and we are delighted to bring this opportunity to Wytham.

This workshop, with just 15 places, will give you a real boost to your school literature studies, and your biology studies. You will have a delightful three hours with an expert ecologist and a professional poet, exploring the world famous Wytham Woods, sharing ideas, and enjoying the peace and quiet with paper and pen in hand.

For this June workshop we will be focussing on the birdlife at Wytham Woods for our inspiration. We will also find many butterflies, bees, dragonflies, and summer flowers. You will learn some identification and binocular skills, and then be coached and encouraged to find your own words to express your thoughts and ideas.

We will round off the afternoon toasting marshmallows over a camp fire.

About “The Lost Words”

In 2007 the Oxford Junior Dictionary left out words relating to the natural world – otter, wren, acorn and many others, and in their place added broadband, blog and others. In response, Macfarlane and Morris created ‘The Lost Words’ – a collection of acrostic poems by Macfarlane, gorgeously illustrated by Morris, which re-conjures these words, brings them back to our hearts and minds, and helps us rediscover the magic of the natural world.

Event leaders

Bird expert Nick Boyd will lead the nature walk and talk, teaching you how to look and listen and notice the living world around us, and poet Phoebe Nicholson will help us create our own Lost Words-inspired poetry.

Parents and guardians!

The event will be managed by Wytham Woods Youth Educator in Residence who will be there to ensure the students are all safe and happy throughout. Caregivers are very welcome to stay with the group during the session (you don’t need to book a ticket), drop off and go for a walk in the woods, or just come back later. We will take contact details and ask you to complete a form with all the relevant information we need to keep your child safe and happy. We hope you’ll join in the campfire and marshmallow bit!

What to bring

The event will be covid-safe and outdoors so please bring weather-appropriate clothing, suitable for a walk in the woods. Bring water, and snacks!

Cost

Tickets are £15 per person + eventbrite booking fee. We are charging enough for this event to cover the very modest costs of OPL for two people for the afternoon and their prep time, and the Wytham Woods costs. But if you are struggling with the amount, please get in touch. kim.polgreen@ligc.co.uk.

To book tickets for this workshop, please go here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/poetry-and-ecology-workshop-for-secondary-school-students-tickets-154077938261?aff=erelexpmlt

Oxford Poetry Library and The Children’s Allotment return to Flo’s Place in the Park on 8 May at 10am til 12 noon with their Many Voices Collection, a collection of children’s books featuring Black characters, written by Black writers, or which centre an anti-racist message.

These books form part of the Oxford Poetry Library’s lending collection, to be borrowed and enjoyed for free by kids and adults alike. We will be at Flo’s on the 8 May with the full Many Voices Collection for you to explore the whole collection and take a book or two home with you!

The books in the Many Voices Collection include not only anti-racist books about understanding and challenging injustice, but also stories in which children could find diverse representations of themselves and their families, as well as those that are different.

Also joining us will be Auntie B’s Treasures, a library collection of Islamic children’s books to read, browse, and borrow.

Read more about the whole collection and the project here.

*COVID information*
The pop-up will be outdoors in the nursery garden. It will be socially distanced and we will allow one household at a time to visit the stall. We will provide hand sanitiser and we ask all attendees to wear masks. Please do not attend the event if you have been diagnosed with COVID-19, or had direct contact with an individual diagnosed with or suspected to have COVID-19 in the past 14 days.

In February 2021, through the Oxford Poetry Library Twitter account (@OxPoetryLibrary) we ran an experimental collaborative writing game. We began by writing one haiku, and invited our followers to write a new haiku, using our final line as their first line. People could then use the first line of that haiku as their new first line, to create a growing tree of haikus.

We weren’t too stringent about the proper haiku rules – we asked for the 5-7-5 syllable structure, but weren’t too fussy about anything else. Poems could be on any subject, and we particularly enjoyed those that took things off in new directions.

The below tree is what came from it – click on the thumbnails to see the full images.

Thank you to everybody who took part!

Yearning for a love letter this Valentine’s Day? Or a blind date? We’ve got you covered!

Email us at oxfordpoetrylibrary@gmail.com before 13 February with your address and on Valentine’s Day we will deliver you a surprise seasonally-appropriate book to borrow! (Unfortunately only available within the Oxford ring-road…)

We are delighted to announce the launch of the Many Voices Collection!

The Many Voices Collection is a collection curated by Oxford Poetry Library and The Children’s Allotment of books featuring black characters, written by black writers, or which centre an anti-racist message. These books form part of the Oxford Poetry Library’s lending collection, free to be borrowed and enjoyed for free by kids and adults alike.

Books are a powerful way for children to understand the world they live in, but often the messages they receive from books reinforce harmful attitudes rooted in our society. Following the racist incidents of 2020 such as the murder of George Floyd and the global Black Lives Matter movement, a group of parents and educators connected to and Oxford Poetry Library and The Childrens Allotment came together to question the racism implicit in the education system and the kinds of books and learning materials around us.

White is frequently the norm in children’s literature, and books often reinforce stereotypes or completely omit the stories of those marginalised in our society. There are still too few books where children of colour can see characters who look like them. The Many Voices Collection seeks to address this gap in representation and build a diverse, colourful, and engaging collection of books for any family to borrow for free.

Come to the nursery garden of Flo’s Place in the Park, 12 December, between 12 noon and 3pm, to discover the collection for yourself, and borrow a book or two!

Have you been missing our Lost Words workshops during lockdown? Want to see what these workshops are all about? We are bringing our Lost Words workshop to Hill End on October 17th! The session will be fully socially distanced, will be outdoors as much as possible, and will stay within the limit of 30 attendees for educational activities.

 

We are running a family workshop inspired by The Lost Words by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris. Macfarlane and Morris created this spellbinding collection in response to the 2007 edition of the Oxford Junior Dictionary which introduced new words such as “broadband” and “blog” while words relating to the natural world (acorn, wren, otter, willow, to name a few) were lost. The dictionary, reflecting the frequency of words in the daily language of children, threw into undeniable relief the idea that children are losing touch with nature. Enter ‘The Lost Words’. This is a magical collection of acrostic poems by Macfarlane, gorgeously illustrated by Morris, which re-conjures these words, brings them back to our hearts and minds, and helps children to discover the natural world around them.

During this special one-off workshop for families (suitable for kids aged 7+) we aim to conjure this spirit in the beautiful grounds of Hill End! After a chat about the kind of creatures, creepy-crawlies, and all manner of living things we might be seeing (and a bit of binocular training!), we head out into Hill End to explore. Local nature expert, Nick Boyd, will lead the walk, teaching participants how to look and listen and notice the living world around us. We then return to the centre to create our own Lost Words-inspired poetry with the help of poet Phoebe Nicholson.

17 October 2020 1pm-4pm, suitable for age 7+

Cost £6/10 adults, £3/5 children (Friends of Hill End/others) capped at £18/30 per family.

Booking essential.

Please note that this session is run by the Friends of Hill End – for bookings and all other enquiries, please contact them directly at: friendsofhillend@gmail.com

The weather is turning, school is back and autumn is definitely here. What better time to curl up with a book?

While we still aren’t quite ready to bring back our market and pop up appearances, why not order one of our books and we’ll deliver it straight to your door?

 

 

How to order

Browse our catalogue online here or have a snoop through our ‘book of the month’ archives for ideas, or feel free to drop us a line at oxfordpoetrylibrary@gmail.com and ask for any recommendations (or let us surprise you with a librarian’s choice!).

Email oxfordpoetrylibrary@gmail.com with your name and the book(s) you’d like, and your preferred method of collection (home delivery or pick-up).

How to get your book

When you let us know what you’d like, we will disinfect the book to the best of our abilities.

If you live within the ring-road, one of our volunteers will deliver the book to you at home by popping it through your letterbox.

If you live further afield or would rather pick up the book yourself, there is also an option to pick up the book at East Oxford. More details on request.

In both cases, volunteers will wear a face mask and gloves and social distancing will be observed.

Books are quarantined before being selected for delivery, and once books are returned will be quarantined and won’t be lent out again for a minimum of 72 hours.

The book loan period will be until December 1st, and books can be returned in the usual way at any of our drop-boxes (more details here).

Happy reading!

It’s been a long spring, but taking our cue from the public library opening on 13 July, we are now ready to start sharing our books with you all again from this Monday! We’re not quite in a position to start up our public appearances with the bike, but are offering you the chance to order your books by emailing oxfordpoetrylibrary@gmail.com.

How to order

Browse our catalogue online here or have a snoop through our ‘book of the month’ archives for ideas, or feel free to drop us a line at oxfordpoetrylibrary@gmail.com and ask for any recommendations (or let us surprise you with a librarian’s choice!).

Email oxfordpoetrylibrary@gmail.com with your name and the book(s) you’d like, and your preferred method of collection (home delivery or pick-up).

How to get your book

When you let us know what you’d like, we will disinfect the book to the best of our abilities.

If you live within the ring-road, one of our volunteers will deliver the book to you at home by popping it through your letterbox.

If you live further afield or would rather pick up the book yourself, there is also an option to pick up the book at East Oxford. More details on request.

In both cases, volunteers will wear a face mask and gloves and social distancing will be observed.

Books are quarantined before being selected for delivery, and once books are returned will be quarantined and won’t be lent out again for a minimum of 72 hours.

The book loan period will be until September 1st, and books can be returned in the usual way at any of our drop-boxes (more details here).

Happy reading!

 

As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020, our homes have been transformed. Bedrooms have become offices, living rooms have become classrooms, gardens have become gyms, and every house has become a cage of sorts.

Some people without a home have found one whilst others have been evicted, and many, many people live with the uncertainty of not being able to afford to keep theirs.

‘Oxford is My Home’ is a zine produced by Oxford Poetry Library and Open House which uses words and pictures to tell the hidden stories of housing and homelessness in Oxford and what it means to call this city ‘home’. You can read more about our first two issues which were released throughout 2019 here.

For our third issue, we wanted to know what #StayatHome looks like for you? How are you spending your days? Who are you with? Are you enjoying yourself? What are you worried about? What do you miss about being able to leave your home?

The Lockdown Edition is our collection of submissions gathered during April and May 2020. We included everything we were sent to ensure we platformed as many voices as possible, and are hugely grateful to everyone who contributed.

You can now browse the webzine in full here: www.oxfordismyhome.co.uk