Helping you turn what you already know into something memorable.
Poetry is the oldest way we have of making words stick. Poetry Works puts its tools (image, compression, rhythm, the turn) to work for organisations, events and individuals.
Notice
Language that cuts through the noise.
Enjoy
Words people are glad to hear.
Use
Phrases teams pick up and repeat.
Remember
Messages that are still there next month.
What I offer
Conferences and events
A commissioned poem to set the tone, and Build a Poem workshops where every delegate writes their own, in a hall of four hundred if need be.
Vision, strategy and brand
Once you know what you want to say, help finding the image and the phrase that make it concrete and hard to forget.
Workshops and training
Concision, imagery, rhythm and rhetoric for teams who write. Nobody is asked to become a poet.
Poems for occasions
Weddings, funerals, anniversaries, openings: a poem written for the moment and the people in the room.
Community workshops
Writing sessions for venues, festivals and nature sites, such as a year of workshops at RSPB Newport Wetlands.
Mentoring
One-to-one support for leaders, and for poets working towards a first collection.
Case study
Four hundred delegates, one difficult idea
A client launching a major initiative found its people struggling with the one concept the whole thing rested on. I wrote a poem to open the second day of their conference, then led all four hundred delegates through Build a Poem.
Each person compared the concept to a colour, a weather, an animal, then to what success would feel like, and came away with twelve lines of their own. The poems gave the client a record of how their people actually understood the idea.
It was a pleasure to work with Adam for a year of poetry workshops with the influence of nature and the scenery of Newport Wetlands in the poems. He was brilliant to work with and always turned up, rain or shine, with a smile.
Kirsty Lindsay, Visitor Experience Manager, RSPB Newport Wetlands
Why a poet?
I spent four decades in organisations, twenty years of them as chief executive of complex healthcare bodies, before poetry became my work. I know what a board needs from a message, and what a poem can do with one.
I hold an MA in Writing Poetry (Distinction) from Newcastle University and the Poetry School, chair Ledbury Poetry, and publish in journals across the UK.
Start a conversation
Tell me about the event, the message or the occasion. I’ll reply within a few days with some thoughts and a fee.