Testimonials from our poets

We had some lovely feedback from our workshop participants, and some clear themes emerged, so we wanted to share them more widely. We haven't put names to individual thoughts here.

I'm a poet and I know it "Working with a group of people and being part of something is wonderful. The writing has been very therapeutic" It is very important not to think about limits - have the confidence to just do it. Laurie is an amazing poet and teacher - thanks to her I realised I could write, whereas before I thought I couldn't. Before I thought there was no way I could do this, but gradually, she gave us the tools to work with and has encouraged people to write amazing poems. In a way, it made me feel like I could call myself a poet. I can own it. Not always an easy experience, but definitely worth it It was hell. And then it was great on the night. It's been about coming back to myself It was very difficult. Some of it was quite torturous, but overall it was a challenge and I rose to it. It was great because it was all about extending yourself - unless you get pushed out of your normal ways of dealing with things, you don't extend and experiment. My only negative comment is that it finished too soon. It was a journey like the P4. People love the Ivy House! There's always tribalism in London, like hipsters - why do people want to follow the pack? The very joyful thing about this pub is that you can just be yourself here - it's very liberating. It makes this place even more special, that it's been saved, and is a live music venue. We have to hold onto these places, where people can come and just do their stuff - the poets, whoever. Another big thing for me is the age thing - this doesn't bill itself to any particular age group, so it appeals to all. Everyone I've brought here absolutely loves it. It was a really good enriching experience as I'm a recent Londoner and shy in pubs. I'm not comfortable just hanging out, so this was a good excuse to come to a place I was interested in, and it has made me feel as though I really belong here. This project made the pub an even better place for me. An enriched community It's great to have the invitation to participate in something - and I am involved in the local community already. It made people get together, and it was very important that they were from different cultures and nationalities, to come together and understand each other. People together produce something that is good for others too. It was worth it just to meet other people from the community. When I first moved to Nunhead I didn't know anyone, and with this I made something very exciting. One of the main things I loved about the project was meeting a variety of people who were totally different to me, that I wouldn't have met without the project, simply because they're totally different to me. We have become friends and are thinking about carrying on the poetry evenings. Not as a closed project but the start of something bigger, maybe creative writing more generally. It was a shared experience, and there was so much more that was beneath it, that was coming through - often you see the same people a lot but you dont know what's beneath. I only really appreciated this on the night, but there were so many themes we had in common - connections, cross threading. That's community isn't it?