Welcome to the Birmingham Stories Poetry Club. Developed and organised by Literacy Champion Zarah and supported by Izzy, this is a space for you to create your own poetry and develop your writing skills.
Create your own verse of a poem based on one of the poems listed below and email it to laura.michelangeli@literacytrust.org.uk. It can be as long or short as you like. Each month we will pick an entry at random to win a book in any genre of your choice!
This club is open for young people of secondary school age and adults. Entrants can only enter once per month and the winner will be contacted via email at the beginning of each month. Submit your entries by midnight on the final day of each month. Full terms and conditions are available on this webpage.
Here’s some questions and tips to get you thinking about writing a stanza, based on the example(s) below:
- Chart your connection to Birmingham, the areas, landmarks, transport, restaurants, and the memories you associate with each place. You could start with a mind map to spark some ideas, and use the words as sentence starters.
- Imagine you are the Poet Laureate whose task it is to respond poetically to an issue of topical importance. Choose whichever subject matter is important to you - whether this be a local or global event.
- Record yourself performing your poetry to get a feel for how it sounds out loud
- Visit Zone In to read our writing tips before you get started.
- Looking for more writing prompts? Then why not check out the #FinishThePoem and #FinishTheLyric challenge on the Rep theatre’s social media channels.
Poem bank:
Amerah Saleh Be Bold, Be Birmingham
Benjamin Zephaniah, Dis Poetry
Casey Bailey, Dear Brum
Jasmine Gardosi, Be Poet
Isabel Galleymore, Harvest, can be read on this webpage.
Lexia Tomlinson, Gee-Whizz, can be read on this webpage.
If writing a full verse isn't your thing, you could have a go at designing a piece of content that reflects the feeling of the poem. Check out some examples from our Literacy Champions below:
