Serious about sonnets? Desperate to knock out an ode? Now is the time to give it a go. Adam Gary, Surrey’s inaugural Poet Laureate, tells Deana Luchia about his innovative poetry hubs...
Rhyming picture books for children aside, or perhaps the occasional striking verse on the Tube, many of us will not have read much poetry since school.
If we consider poets at all, we tend to think of the dead ones we studied for exams: the war poets, the Romantics, Dylan Tomas and Sylvia Plath, with their complex rhyming patterns.
But if Adam Gary has anything to do with it, all that is about to change. The inaugural, extremely smiley Surrey Poet Laureate is a man on a mission.
Enjoying expression
“People don’t realise that poetry can be fun,” he tells me on Zoom. “At school, the focus is on theory, but it’s more important to learn to enjoy expression first.”
The Surrey Poet Laureateship was established by Adam back in May, with patrons Howard Jameson (co-founder of Jermyn Street Theatre) and Alix Bramwell (co-founder of Wisdom on Wellness) – not only to celebrate existing poetry, but to inspire people to pick up a pen and write their own.
“Don’t worry about form or rhymes,” urges Adam, 32. “Just sit down and write what you’re feeling and see what comes of that. Come to a hub with no preconceived notions, with a completely fresh mind, and see after two hours if your perception has changed. Because nine times out of ten it does.”
Free poetry workshops
The ‘hubs’ are poetry workshops run by the Laureateship and are currently held at libraries in Woking, Kingston, and Staines. With funding, the aim is to expand across the county.
“We have such an eclectic mix of hubbers,” says Adam, beaming. “It’s amazing. Some people come because they want to read their poems, but most come for the social element. They’re interested in poetry, but they love the interaction too, which is very much the whole point of it. I love that someone has woken up in the morning and decided to engage with poetry for two hours.”
The weekly workshops are free, although anyone booking a session online can add a donation if they choose.
They attract a mix of the retired, semi-retired and freelancers, most of them ‘absolute beginners’.
“We had a new woman join us recently. She had never written a poem before in her life, and she joined us on the day we were looking at villanelles [19-line poems consisting of five three-line stanzas and one of four], which are considered one of the hardest forms to write. But she did it,” says Adam proudly.
It's never too late
In fact, Adam was a fairly late starter himself. Initially drawn to acting, he didn’t write his first poem until he was 18.
“I had my first relationship and, for whatever reason, I thought: ‘I’ll write a poem.’ So I did. I also drew a nice little sketch of Kingston Bridge because we used to sit there; that was our spot.
“It’s so corny, but I don’t know how else to explain it. You know in the first Harry Potter film when Harry finds his wand and his hair goes on end? That was how it felt. There was so much electricity, which I’d never experienced with acting.”
Adam duly left the stage and focused on poetry.
Finding the Surrey verse scene bare, the Spelthorne autodidact created a YouTube poetry channel and also founded The Poetry Cove, a platform for emerging poets across the globe.
Meanwhile the laureateship hopes to receive funding to run workshops in schools, youth groups and care homes, as well as in libraries. Volunteers are also required.
“Right now I’m crying out for assistant facilitators, with the idea of making them the main facilitators at the various hubs,” explains Adam. “If you’re thinking that you would love one of these hubs at your library, I can set it up and give you all the information and training. Or maybe you would like to take over an existing hub, which then frees me to go and start a new one somewhere else.”
Social and creative opportunities aside, the hubs also play a role in improving mental health.
“There are lots of poets out there who use their poetry as a way of dealing with dark emotions; getting them out onto the page. It’s a type of therapy. To be clear, writing a poem is not going to cure anything, right? But if you’re struggling with strong emotions and you’re not talking to anybody about it, then personally I find – and I know a lot of other people do too – that it’s really helpful to get something written down. Even if you just scrunch up the paper afterwards, or you burn it, or put it in the bin, it’s doing something with those emotions, right?”
Comments from one recent hubber serve to underline the point.
“We have a woman who’s dealing with some strong emotions right now. She pulled me aside two weeks in a row to say: ‘I never thought I could do this. It took so much for me to leave the house and come here today. Now I’m writing poetry for the first time in 40 years.’”
As well as reading, writing and analysing poetry, the hubs provide poets with an opportunity to read their work aloud. Whilst not everyone wants to – and there is certainly no pressure – others enjoy the shared experience so much that they attend Adam’s poetry open mic nights, held at Thames Side Brewery in Staines.
“I cannot praise the Brewery enough,” says Adam. “They’re not usually open on Tuesdays, but they opened for us. I don’t know many other venues that would do that – not for a poetry night. But every month has been so magical. It’s a very supportive place.”
Adam himself is often first up to the mic: no one else, he says, ever wants to go first. For the recent Remembrance Sunday-themed night in November, he recited his new poem about a great-great-uncle who was killed at the Battle of Messines.
Does he consider himself a ‘full-time’ poet? Oh yes, he smiles – as of last week, when his licence to work as a security guard expired.
“It’s kind of nerve-racking, but yeah, I’m out in the big world now. These poetry hubs are taking off and it just seems like a great opportunity to kind of go for it. But maybe I’m a bit crazy. I could end up with my tail between my legs.”
Somehow, though, I doubt it. Adam’s enthusiasm is contagious; his desire to spread the gospel of verse is remarkable. The stuff of poetry, you might say.
- surreypoetlaureateship.org; YouTube: youtube.com/adamgarypoetry
- Open Mic Nights in Surrey: Thames Side Brewery, Staines; Solar Sisters, Guildford; Mole Valley Poets, Dorking
