POET BETH CALVERLEY PENS POEM FOR PARK
Poet Beth Calverley joined Birmingham Business Park with her magical Poetry Machine to create free typewritten poems in conversation with BBP staff. Beth, above, is a poet, performer, facilitator and founder of The Poetry Machine.
Her writing delights in the weird and wonderful things we do when trying to belong. She spent a day creating poems with staff at BBP and used these conversations as inspiration for her final piece.
A poem for the Birmingham Business Park community
Where Birds Have Names
Dressed in his soft grey suit, Horace eyes the sign: No fishing. Private Estate.
But, for him, it’s always Foodie Thursday…
In a flash, there’s silver in his beak.
First named by a child in the nursery, word spread
like light across the lake - people talk to each other in this place,
this nest of many birds, where a tenant’s good morning
calms a newcomer’s nerves.
Where we catch a splash of nature every day.
148 acres to melt our stress away. Forest bathing zen.
Allotment lunchbreaks. Worklife balance is an egg-and-spoon race.
The lake is our silver spoon.
Here, there are hands to steady our eggs.
A netwalking group. Social clubs.
In Summer, we share our picnics with the geese.
Hives make honey for charity,
each jar labelled Bee Happy - the tagline coined by a schoolgirl.
In Winter, we make wreaths. Eat churros. Stand and chat on sugared grass.
We share what we catch with neighbours too.
Litter picking signs for a local group. Cardboard boxes for a Sleep Out.
Tickets as prizes for the games, everyone scrambling to unscramble the clue -
Togetherness: a treasure hunt that everyone can win.
We’re proud as peacocks of this park. And even though we can’t agree
between Phillip or Percy,
we can all agree our peacock has a name.
We aren’t just here to work. There’s nothing private about this estate.
Community breathes in and out. Whatever the signs at the gates of life might say -
work, home, nursery, school - who we are inside doesn’t change.
We’re all people, all part of nature.
So let’s meet for a coffee at the lake.
Her writing delights in the weird and wonderful things we do when trying to belong. She spent a day creating poems with staff at BBP and used these conversations as inspiration for her final piece.
A poem for the Birmingham Business Park community
Where Birds Have Names
Dressed in his soft grey suit, Horace eyes the sign: No fishing. Private Estate.
But, for him, it’s always Foodie Thursday…
In a flash, there’s silver in his beak.
First named by a child in the nursery, word spread
like light across the lake - people talk to each other in this place,
this nest of many birds, where a tenant’s good morning
calms a newcomer’s nerves.
Where we catch a splash of nature every day.
148 acres to melt our stress away. Forest bathing zen.
Allotment lunchbreaks. Worklife balance is an egg-and-spoon race.
The lake is our silver spoon.
Here, there are hands to steady our eggs.
A netwalking group. Social clubs.
In Summer, we share our picnics with the geese.
Hives make honey for charity,
each jar labelled Bee Happy - the tagline coined by a schoolgirl.
In Winter, we make wreaths. Eat churros. Stand and chat on sugared grass.
We share what we catch with neighbours too.
Litter picking signs for a local group. Cardboard boxes for a Sleep Out.
Tickets as prizes for the games, everyone scrambling to unscramble the clue -
Togetherness: a treasure hunt that everyone can win.
We’re proud as peacocks of this park. And even though we can’t agree
between Phillip or Percy,
we can all agree our peacock has a name.
We aren’t just here to work. There’s nothing private about this estate.
Community breathes in and out. Whatever the signs at the gates of life might say -
work, home, nursery, school - who we are inside doesn’t change.
We’re all people, all part of nature.
So let’s meet for a coffee at the lake.
