Student Review - Year 12 Poetry Workshop with Liz Berry

On Monday 16th of June, English Literature A-level students had the privilege to meet with Liz Berry, an acclaimed poet from the Black Country, for a poetry workshop. Through this workshop, we were able to visualise the creative process in which Berry’s The Republic of Motherhood pamphlet was written, as well as being taken behind-the-scenes to her own first drafts of her own poetry.

In this workshop, students were encouraged to use their imagination through word association games, inspiring us to push our creativity to form comparisons

of our own. Only in our poetry could a sequined sash become a skyscraper, and a red colander become Paddington’s hat! Next, Liz Berry walked us through expanding our metaphors further from comparisons and reading out our ideas to the group. Although

we were hesitant at first, we soon gained our confidence to share how a myriad of items and concepts pair and contrast with one another – explaining our visions and interpretations of these concepts to deepen our poetic skill. After this, we were assigned to enter pairs or threes and offered a selection of words from certain poems. Consequently, we were tasked to collaborate, to create our own poems from these words. It was interesting to see how many different interpretations there could be of the same poetry and was also an excellent opportunity to work with others to see their own linguistic process.

We were then privileged to hear Liz Berry’s own process in composing the pamphlet’s titular poem The Republic of Motherhood. We were allowed to analyse and compare her notes compared to the finished poem and were able to discern how her language choices influenced the meaning of the poem and how lines were rearranged and cut to communicate what she was saying. As well, she described how she wrote down ‘the first thing that came into my [her] head’ when constructing a first draft, highlighting her thought process throughout the writing of the piece.

After a short break, we were given our final activity – to make a poem using Liz Berry’s own poetry, and to make a collage with it. For 40 minutes we worked alongside our teachers and peers to make our own mark from what we had learnt previously. The talent displayed by everyone was incredible! Themes varied from love stories, to guilt and past trauma, and media ranged from magazine images to sheets of music, to even tinfoil and glitter. Once finished, we cleaned up and placed our masterpieces in the centre of the hall – our own little art gallery encompassing the artistic talent of each and every one of us. Everyone and put in their best efforts to express themselves in their work. We gathered around our work and were given the opportunity to personally ask Liz about the production of The Republic of Motherhood, from whether poems were cut, or how the decisions on the order of poems were made.

I think I can speak for all of us when I say I thoroughly appreciated this afternoon, both as an insight into our NEA poems and as a creative change of pace from our usual work. One student mentioned they particularly enjoyed it because these types of activities are seldom offered past primary school, and this goes to demonstrate how valuable this activity was to both the students and the staff. We found both a learning experience and a solace in poetry that Monday afternoon, and so I would like to thank Liz Berry for coming in, and the teachers for organising this insightful event!

By Emily, Year 12