Curated & Created launch NTU’s first poetry wall

Published: 12/05/2023

Join us in celebrating creativity, respect and inclusion at NTU, by visiting – and being inspired by – our new poetry wall.

In May 2022, Curated & Created held a poetry competition inviting students, staff and the wider community to submit poetry representing solace, inspiration and connection.

The winning poem was written by staff member Claire Miller, and was designed and hand-painted by Lucinda Ireland, a BA (Hons) Graphic Design alum.

Entitled Here & Now, Claire’s poem was written in the Dryden Pocket Garden – where the poetry wall is located – while she sat on one of the benches. Claire used this experience to help craft the final poem she submitted. You can read two verses of Here & Now on the wall.

Breathe in life as it sings and thrives around you –

Hear the chatter of starlings darting through paper bark trees

The humming of bumblebees, sipping at nectar tea

While the wind whistles through the leaves that whisper-dance

On this island of green

Listen to the water trickle and bubble,

The glass-clinks and the chair-scrapes from nearby gardens,

Elated waves of here-and-now laughter

And underneath, the lull of distant traffic,

Like an ocean sighing, lapping at these streets

As you settle into the sonata of Nottingham.

You’ll find the poetry wall in the Dryden Pocket Garden, next to the Dryden Centre and 50 Shakespeare Street. Make sure you visit, taking time to sit and reflect and appreciate the creativity and beauty of this work of art!

Curated & Created

This initiative is part of Curated & Created, NTU’s arts programme that includes WRAP (Writing, Reading and Pleasure), NTU Music, Bonington Gallery, Metronome, Great Minds and University Hall concerts.