Ode to the Ash Tree Poetry Project

Ode to The Ash Tree Poetry Project Promotional Film from Courage Copse Creatives CIC on Vimeo.

The Ash trees are dying.

Travelling around North Devon, or indeed most places in England, you will see Ash trees everywhere – in our hedgerows, parks, gardens and woodlands. The fungal disease, Ash Dieback, is predicted to kill between 80 – 90% of them. So, before they disappear, while they are still here, Ode to the Ash Tree Poetry Project is a small tribute to the Ash trees. To celebrate them. To give them a good send off.

Members of the community were invited to submit poems on the theme on Ash trees – anything to do with them – their physical appearance, myths and folklore, practical uses or the disease itself.

Five workshops accompanied the project, four for primary-aged children and one for adults.

A poetry pen pal scheme was set up between Eastleigh Care Home residents and pupils from South Molton Community Primary School, which produced eleven collaborative poems.

In total fifty-six poems were submitted.

Forty were longlisted and appear in a book. Now available from our shop here.

Twenty shortlisted poems were made into films and were used to create an interactive poetry map for South Molton Community Woodlands.