Poem of the North

Fifty years of the Northern Poetry Library

New Poem

Poem of the North

Fifty years of the Northern Poetry Library

To celebrate 50 years of the Northern Poetry Library, we welcome you to a living, growing, collaborative artwork-in-progress. The Poem of the North brings together the work of the fifty selected poets, in five cantos, published over a period of six months. By the end of 2018, the completed poem will stand as a celebratory artefact: a tribute to the region and acknowledgement of the North’s rich seam of writers and written culture. Find out more about the Library and this artwork.

Enjoy the poems – whose 8-2-1 form has been devised as a tribute to the poetry section of libraries – as they arrive, every three days, via the table of contents below. In each canto we have chosen a Commended poem, rewarded with a Poetry Book Society membership.

Growing Table of Contents

Canto 1

1.0 Frontpiece

1.1 North by John Challis

1.2 Journey North by Ian Stuart

1.3 Drystone walling by Duncan Chambers

1.4 Backbone by Joe Caldwell

1.5 Bold Street, Liverpool by Mary Woodward

1.6 Ghost crossing by Harry Man Commended

1.7 North Pennines by Sally Evanz

1.8 Ekphrasis by Charley Reay

1.9 Notes made on Hadrian’s Wall by Catherine Ayres

1.10 Yr Hen Ogledd by Anthony Heald

Canto 2

2.0 Frontpiece

2.1 Plenitude by Linda France

2.2 Arbeia by Jane Dobson Commended

2.3 Shoreline by Claire Lynn

2.4 On a North Sea shore by Simon Heath

2.5 Welcome to Liverpool by Maria Isakova-Bennett

2.6 Apple Ducking, Otley Chevin by Rachel Bower

2.7 “On the eyelid of the North” by Sarah James

2.8 A River through the North by Ian Parks

2.9 Viewpoint on the River Dee by Fiona L Bennett

2.10 Whitby by Tom Weir

Canto 3

3.0 Frontpiece

3.1 Second Avenue, Heaton, 1992 by Mike Farren Commended

3.2 Moving North by Cora Greenhill

3.3 Jigger by Nicholas Murray

3.4 Belonging by Michael Jenkinson

3.5 Depleted stock by Linda Burnett

3.6 Aad wife by Juleigh Howard-Hobson

3.7 Northbound by Zoë Sîobhan Howarth-Lowe

3.8 World Headquarters by Degna Stone

3.9 Are you ’avin’ a laff? by Philip Foster

3.10 Northern light by Amanda Huggins

Canto 4

4.0 Frontpiece

4.1 April’s end by Adam Carruthers

4.2 Clouds by Pippa Little

4.3 The lie by Phoebe Walker

4.4 Exile by Ellen Phethean

4.5 Callin’ by Janet Dean

4.6 Wearside phone call by Clare Crossman Commended

4.7 ♥ Manchester by Susan Sollazzi

4.8 Tyne undertow by Vicky Arthurs

4.9 Class photographs by Michael Brown

4.10 The sky beneath our feet by Carolyn Jess-Cooke

Canto 5

5.0 Frontpiece

5.1 Skinningrove: No Country for Young Men by Jo Colley

5.2 A stag on the borders counties line by Harry Gallagher

5.3 Only dust by Jane Burn

5.4 Bede writes a history of the English people by Rosie Garland

5.5 The overburden by Emma Filtness Commended

5.6 Girls from a York School, Wharfedale Field Trip 1992 by Jo Young

5.7 Northern clothscape by Dawn Wood

5.8 Old railway viaduct, County Durham by Ralph Mold

5.9 Here by Jane Woodcock

5.10 North ⁵⁰ by Lisa Matthews

Poem’s end

Thank you for your interest in this project. To find out more about the Northern Poetry Library visit the NPL website, or catch up with news on by following NPL ON INSTAGRAM or NPL ON TWITTER for alerts.

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