‘Wildings, Edgelands and Elsewheres’ – Jemma Borg, Derrick Porter and Jude Rosen

September 3, 2025

On a markedly autumnal evening, we were treated to a journey through words and worlds by these three very different poets, showing (not telling!) their deep love for and connection to the living world, the environment, social justice and more…

I am sure that her scientific background has something to do with Jemma’s particular, exact, almost forensic and hugely evocative way she writes about, for example, water, thistles, grass… You feel as though you’re listening to the music of her words while at the same time crouching over tiny things, peeling their layers to expose a human link within, or observing majestic phenomena with ancient resonances.

Derrick’s ‘elsewheres’ took us from Jerusalem to India through cheeky romance and an ironic look at the world of contemporary art. The very personal Dawn to Dusk contains one of the most memorable lines, for me, of the evening, and not just of the evening: Loaded down with the day`s detritus I watch the Moon ready to be wiped clean. As one member of the audience said to him, your poetry says it all.

Jude Rosen is such an original voice, introducing her deep knowledge of local (Lea Valley) history and her verbatim records of it as urban researcher into her poetry, gifting us with many voices within her own. What emerges is her love of not only the environment in general, but of particular environments, her mourning at their loss, and her joy at what is still there, and what will grow, still and again, or will be transformed, like a branch of a felled maple made into a harp.

After the interval we had a few questions and an interesting discussion about what is ‘nature poetry’ and whether it is political, whether it has power to change things, even when written without that particular purpose in mind, therefore not a campaigning exercise… All within the emergency situation the world is in…. The answer, as we all know, is in the wind!

With thanks as always to Kim and Emma at the Library, to Mari for helping with the refreshments, to all those who attended and, of course, to the poets.

Jemma Borg was born in Essex. She was an evolutionary geneticist and has worked in research, publishing and the voluntary sector. Her second collection, Wilder (Pavilion, 2022), was shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize, was a Laurel Prize for Ecopoetry winner and included poems that won the RSPB/Rialto Nature and Place Competition and the inaugural Ginkgo Prize. She has recently completed a commission to write about the unique and protected national landscape where she lives in East Sussex, and will be reading the poem as part of the High Weald Walking Festival in September. She is also a contributor to the ecosonnet chain which is currently forming online, being curated by Linda France along with Bill Herbert and Andy Jackson at the University of Newcastle. www.jemmaborg.co.uk

Derrick Porter grew up in Hoxton in the East End in a non-literary environment but was encouraged to write in his forties by Ted Walter and to publish by Ken Worpole in Centreprise’s community publishing project. He joined the Poetry School and became a member Mimi Khalvati’s advanced workshop. His poems have appeared in Acumen, Envoi, Interpreter House, Long Poem Magazine, Magma and Poetry Review and in two anthologies This Little Stretch of Life (Hearing Eye, 2006) and I Am Twenty People (Enitharmon, 2007). He has been recognised in numerous poetry competitions. In 2015 his first collection Voices of Hoxton was published by Thamesis. His second collection, The Art of Timing, came out in September 2024 from Paekakariki Press.

Jude Rosen was born in the East End of London and worked as a historian, urban researcher and translator. A graduate of the Poetry School M.A. from Newcastle University (2022), she currently runs poetry workshops for refugees and migrants. Her pamphlet, A Small Gateway was published by Hearing Eye in 2009. Two further pamphlets – Underfoot, with poems appearing in Tears in the Fence, (March 2024) and Between the Ground and the Sky of Gaza – are awaiting publication. Her collection Reclamations from London’s Edgelands was published by Paekakariki Press in 2024. Poems from the book were performed on poem and living history walks of the Olympic zone 2015-19 (poemwalks.wordpress.com). A video “Desire Paths – a film haibun” of the ‘Desire Path vs. Enclosure’ walk on Leyton and Walthamstow marshes was produced by Fawzia Kane in 2016 (https://vimeo.com/197324168 ).

Events

Tuesday March 24 at West Greenwich Library, 7 for 7.30
‘HOME’ – poetry with Susannah Hart, NJ Hynes and Rosie Johnston – and music with harpist Lucia Foti

Great favourites bringing on spring 2026 on the theme of ‘HOME’ in their own words and in those of past and contemporary poets, plus some glorious music. Here’s some info about them:

Susannah Hart has been widely published in magazines and online, including Smiths Knoll, Poetry Review, PN Review and Finished Creatures. Her first collection Out of True won the Live Canon First Collection Prize and her poem Reading the Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy won the 2019 National Poetry Competition. Susannah is on the board of Magma Poetry and is also a trustee of Poetry in Aldeburgh, where she coordinates the schools programme. She lives in London with her husband, is a longstanding governor of her local primary school and in her spare time is trying without much success to learn Japanese.

NJ Hynes lived and worked in South London for over 30 years but has recently relocated to East Sussex. Before moving to the UK, she lived in Minneapolis, Minnesota, a part of the US currently under siege from Trump’s private army, bringing to the front notions of home, allegiance and belonging. Her first collection The Department of Emotional Projections won Live Canon’s inaugural First Collection competition in 2014. Her latest pamphlet Tracking Light, Stacking Time, written in response to the astrophotography exhibited each year at the National Maritime Museum, was published by Live Canon in 2023. In between, she’s published in numerous journals, including Rialto, The Long Poem Magazine, Brittle Star and Under the Radar. Her work has also appeared in the Washington Post as well as at train stations, art galleries and Soho shop fronts. 

Rosie Johnston’s fifth poetry book is Safe Ground, published by Mica Press last year. It traces Rosie’s search for safety from a tricky upbringing in Troubles Belfast to peace and a sense of home where she now lives near Margate. Her four earlier collections were published by Lapwing Publications (Belfast). Rosie’s main themes are home, and nature’s place in our recovery from trauma. Her poetry is anthologised by Live Canon, Arlen House, OneWorld’s Places of Poetry anthology, Fevers of the Mind and American Writers Review. Her poems have appeared in The Phare, Snakeskin, London Grip, Culture NI, The Honest Ulsterman, Mary Evans Picture Library’s Poems and Pictures blog and Fevers of the Mind. Rosie reads her poetry widely, most recently at the Faversham Literary Festival. She runs informal groups for writers in all genres and is currently developing ‘writing buddy’ or ‘quiet writing’ groups several times a month. www.rosiejohnstonwrites.com

Lucia Foti is a London-based Italian harpist. After graduating with first class honours from the Conservatorio di Como, she completed her Master’s, graduating with distinction from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. Lucia has won several national and international prizes, including first prize the 2012 Concours Français de la Harpe and the 2015 Soroptimist Italia Competition for Young Talents, and more recently, third prize at the 2024 Manchester Harp Competition. She performs solo with professional orchestras, has performed at Kings Place and can be heard regularly at Cadogan Hall and St John’s Smith Square with the Young Musicians’ Symphony Orchestra. Lucia and guitarist Stefano Fiacco have partnered to form the Nazca Duo, and in 2023 they have been awarded the Colin Blythe Bursary Fund in recognition of their achievement in chamber music.

Free as always, plenty of refreshments!

Tuesday May 5 [NEW DATE!] at West Greenwich Library, 7 for 7.30

PINDROP PRESS triple launch: Alex Josephy, Emily Wills and Sharon Black present their new collections, hot off the [Pindrop] press!

More info soon.

Tuesday June 9 at West Greenwich Library, 7 for 7.30: Robert Seatter presents ‘RIVER – Poems for the River Thames, from source to sea’

This year marks 30 years of the Thames Path, creating unique access to England’s most important and much loved river. RIVER will take you on a new and visceral journey, from source to sea, unpacking encounters en route and revealing the extraordinary emotional pull of the Thames in our lives.

Robert Seatter is writer in residence on this fascinating project, writing 30 short poems for key locations along the river’s 200 mile route, including Greenwich. Poems will be accessed via QR codes on the footpath finger posts, realised in audio, plus available in a hand-printed, limited edition book.
Join Robert to hear more as well as to share your own memories and stories of the Thames over time.
Robert has published eight poetry collections, and has won many awards and nominations for his poetry, including National Poetry Competition, London Poetry and Forward Poetry Prize. He is also a skilled poetry curator, with a specific interest in poetry and place making, as well as an arts professional with experience of chairing both The Poetry Trust and The Poetry Archive. He lives in London, where he works for the BBC, his most recent role being Head of BBC History. www.robertseatter.co.uk