The Poetry House

Probably the most famous Poetry House is detailed in Lester Walker's seminal tome A Little House of My Own: 47 Grand Designs for 47 Tiny Houses and is owned by artist Carol Anthony. It's a 26 square ft converted outhouse, with deck, where she goes to work or simply relax. "Solitude is necessary nourishment for any creative process to begin," she says, describing the shedlike structure as "a small, intimate slice of prose but representative of the bigger conversation of what I'm all about." It's a lovely build and worth the price of the book in itself (well, just about).

Pictured above is an equally lovely example, The Poetry House by sculptor Bruce Johnson (do click - it's a marvellous website, full of gorgeous pictures and a great gong). Inspired by a poem by Elizabeth Carothers Herron, Johnson constructed this smashing building (redwood, copper) as an architectural sculpture inspired by a traditional Japanese teahouse (now on display at the Paradise Wood Sculpture Grove in Santa Rosa). Lines from Herron's poem have been transcribed onto both the interiors and exteriors of the building."The intention is to imbue this small quiet space with poetry," she says. "Bruce created a space for reflection, for slowing down, for being more thoughtful, and poetry epitomizes that state of mind." Johnson adds: ""So what is a poetry house? I have come to feel that it is the empty space where attention resides...like prayers in a prayer wheel the invisible text has resonance."

Physic garden writer's hut fully funded

We're delighted to report that friend of Shedworking Deborah Alma - who runs the world's first walk-in Poetry Pharmacy in Bishop's Castle - has hit her kickstarter target to create a modern Poetry Physic Garden inspired by the gardens cultivated by mediaeval apothecaries. This will include a writer's hut - pictured above - in which visitors can write poetry, and also enable four horticultural students from Winterbourne House and Gardens to set up a garden with poetry threaded throughout at BBC Gardener's World live later this month at the NEC in Birmingham. 

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National (Shed) Poetry Day

There's a considerable canon of excellent shed-based and garden office-inspired poetry by the likes of John 'Shedman' Davies (above) and Matt Harvey as well as an actual Poetry House shed. Shedworking was also delighted to see that Workshop Shed has also got into the spirit of the occasion. For today's special National Poetry Day though we're going for something with which readers are probably unfamiliar, The Lean-To-Shed (Communicated By An Eight-Year-Old) by R. C. Lehmann, who wrote for Punch magazine about 100 years ago. It's quite long (you can read the whole thing at Google Books) so we've just included the first verse to give you a flavour

I’ve a palace set in a garden fair,
And, oh, but the flowers are rich and rare,
Always growing
And always blowing
Winter or summer—it doesn’t matter—
For there’s never a wind that dares to scatter
The wonderful petals that scent the air
About the walls of my palace there.
And the palace itself is very old,
And it’s built of ivory splashed with gold.
It has silver ceilings and jasper floors
And stairs of marble and crystal doors;
And whenever I go there, early or late,
The two tame dragons who guard the gate
And refuse to open the frowning portals
To sisters, brothers and other mortals,
Get up with a grin
And let me in.
And I tickle their ears and pull their tails
And pat their heads and polish their scales;
And they never attempt to flame or fly,
Being quelled by me and my human eye.
Then I pour them drink out of golden flagons,
Drink for my two tame trusty dragons…
But John,
Who’s a terrible fellow for chattering on,
John declares
They are Teddy-bears;
And the palace itself, he has often said,
Is only the gardener’s lean-to shed.

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Poetry Potting Shed

The Poetry Potting Shed comes from Spoke, a new poetry and spoken word programme offering people in East London an opportunity to watch, perform and develop careers in spoken word and performance poetry in and around the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Special guests include Michael Rosen and Niall O’Sullivan. Lots more information at their site. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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National (Shed) Poetry Day

It's National Poetry Day today. Those of you who enjoy both sheds and stanzas should make a beeline for the work of John 'Shedman' Davies who both writes about sheds and tours the country's festivals performing from inside a shed. His collection 'Shedman' is particularly worth investigating.

Our favourite poem about garden offices and shedworking is Where Eagles Dare by Matt Harvey - in fact we liked it so much that it is included in the Shedworking book. Here it is:

A silver trail across the monitor;
Fresh mouse-droppings beneath the swivel-chair;
The view obscured by rogue japonica.
Released into the wild, where earwigs dare -

You first went freelance - and then gently feral.
You worked from home - and then wandered out again,
Roughed it with spider, ant, shrew, blackbird, squirrel
In your own realm, your micro-vatican.

No name conveys exactly what it is -
Chalet? Gazebo? You were not misled
By studios, snugs, garden offices,
Workshops or outhouses. A shed's a shed -

And proud of it. You wouldn't want to hide it -
Wifi-enable rain-proof wooden box.
A box to sit in while you think outside it -
Self-rattling cage, den, poop-deck, paradox,

Hutch with home-rule, cramped cubicle of freedom,
Laboratory, thought-palace, bodger's bower,
Plot both to sow seeds and to go to seed in,
Cobwebbed, Cuprinol-scented, Seat of Power.

Matt's excellent collection The Hole in the Sum of my Parts in which this appears is published by the Poetry Trust, nicely illustrated by David Hughes, and I would urge all readers to snap up a copy now. You can buy direct from Matt's site shop here.

And here's Dominic Taylor reciting his poem 'The Shed' during the Cuisle-Limerick City International Poetry Festival 2005, recorded by John Davis.

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Homeworking poetry: Matt Harvey

Another little exclusive: tomorrow's Desktop Poetry section of The Guardian will carry this rather smashing poem by friend of Shedworking Matt Harvey who wrote the marvellous Where Earwigs Dare about shedworking.

On the tendency towards gender-stereotypical behaviour among home-workers

They rise together, woken by the kids.
She feeds, wipes, wraps and zips them in to school.
He turns his laptop on, and focuses.
She launders, shops, brings home formidable
stocks, stacks them, puts a pan on low, completes
a tax form, phones them up, is put on hold…
He types a line, deletes, types, re-deletes.
She stirs. Her mobile goes. Yvette’s been told
she’s obsolete, redundant. Oh, how awful!
She’s taken off hold. Yvette starts to cry.
The unwatched pan boils over. There’s the doorbell.
She pushes his door, taps to catch his eye.
He looks up crossly at third time of asking:
DON’T INTERRUPT ME WHEN I’M MONO-TASKING!

You can buy Matt's books of poetry from his site here. I'd particularly recommend The Hole in the Sum of My Parts.

Shed Happenings

Today's guest post is by Maria C. McCarthy who reports on her intriguing Shed Happenings project.


When I was little, my siblings and I staged performances of song, dance and magic tricks in our shed. We charged tuppence to get in, and served squash and biscuits. Perhaps these were the first shed happenings.

Four years ago, my husband and I bought a house on the basis that it had a shed. It was a ramshackle affair with a dirt floor and walls that didn’t always meet the leaky corrugated iron and asbestos roof. But it was huge, and had a lovely view over an orchard.

An occupation of builders brought out the best in our outhouse, and now it is two-thirds shed-shed, one-third writing room (see photo above). Or guitar room, depending on whether you speak to me or my husband. It’s used for writers’ workshops and band rehearsals, and will soon host a shed happening, or s’happening.

I met another shed-lover on Facebook, Sarah March d’Angelo, and we came up with the idea of s’happenings. The first took place this month, in Sarah’s shed, with a nautical theme. Seven artists huddled by the light of candles and torches, read poems, projected film with live poetry to match the images, and sang songs to a baby harp and guitar. There was bouillabaisse and wine, and each s’happener made a donation to charity. Our host’s son remarked that we were, ‘Sad’, spending the evening in a cold shed, but it was entertaining, inspiring and fun.

The next s’happening is in my shed in April. The theme is Entente Cordiale. A short play, poetry, songs and projections on the shed walls are promised. English and French cheeses and wines will be served. For those without the requisite outhouse to host a s’happening, tent and gazebo happenings may follow – once the weather gets warmer.

Maria’s poetry collection, strange fruits, is available from www.culturedllama.co.uk. Harp photo of harpist Fran Broady by Nikki Price
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Garden office poetry: Matt Harvey

The Guardian has a regular slot in its Work section on Saturdays called Desktop Poetry. Frequently appealing, today's offering - Where Earwigs Dare - by the marvellous Matt Harvey (recommended to me by Shedworking regular Annie Leymarie last month) is particularly enticing and I would suggest is the finest poem ever written about shedworking:

A silver trail across the monitor;
Fresh mouse-droppings beneath the swivel-chair;
The view obscured by rogue japonica.
Released into the wild, where earwigs dare -

You first went freelance - and then gently feral.
You worked from home - and then wandered out again,
Roughed it with spider, ant, shrew, blackbird, squirrel
In your own realm, your micro-vatican.

No name conveys exactly what it is -
Chalet? Gazebo? You were not misled
By studios, snugs, garden offices,
Workshops or outhouses. A shed's a shed -

And proud of it. You wouldn't want to hide it -
Wifi-enable rain-proof wooden box.
A box to sit in while you think outside it -
Self-rattling cage, den, poop-deck, paradox,

Hutch with home-rule, cramped cubicle of freedom,
Laboratory, thought-palace, bodger's bower,
Plot both to sow seeds and to go to seed in,
Cobwebbed, Cuprinol-scented, Seat of Power.

Matt's excellent collection The Hole in the Sum of my Parts has just been published by the Poetry Trust, nicely illustrated by David Hughes, and I would urge all readers to snap up a copy now. You can buy direct from Matt's site shop here.

Garden office poetry

There's not a huge amount of garden office poetry so it's always a pleasure to find an addition to the canon. Here's the first stanza from The Writing Shed by Steve Tanham:

Will I write in here as snows arrive

Locked eyes and fingers frenzied?

Imagined places, chattering teeth

With windows needing mended

You can read the rest of it (there's a nice twist in the tale at the end...) at Steve's Sun in Gemini site here. ---------------------------------------------------------

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Shed poetry: You Do Not Need Another Self-Help Book

Shedworking's literary editor Sarah Salway has a new book out, You Do Not Need Another Self-Help Book, her first collection of poetry (which you can buy direct from the publishers here - £8.99 plus £1 postage). As you'd expect from a member of the Shedworking staff, the book is marvellous - Sarah is not only a lovely person, she's an excellent writer. Indeed, she has very kindly recorded one of her poems which features a shed exclusively for Shedworking and here it is, Happy, I think...



Sarah is also the Canterbury Laureate and here she is outside the brand new shed at Canterbury Cathedral. "I don't think however anyone works there," she says, "or is going to give sermons inside. But it's a very fine shed, I think you would agree."

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Shedman - new poetry collection

John Davies, the poet known as Shedman who is also poet in residence on The Shed magazine (new issue out at the end of this week) will be giving a preview of his new collection Shedman (what else?) at The Poetry Cafe, Betterton Street, Covent Garden, on Wednesday 28 November at 7.30 for 8pm. The new collection is available from the Pighog Press and is one of Shedworking's books of the year. Here's more information from Pighog:

“Is a shed a substitute for something never had
a replacement mother, or a kind of flat-pack dad?”

So begins John Davies’ much published and broadcast signature poem in his new full-length collection Shedman, named after his journeying alter-ego. Shed poems there are aplenty, illustrating Shedman’s career since his first residency at Brighton’s Booth Museum of Natural History. But this new collection also represents the broad spectrum of John Davies’ work. Across the different sequences, Davies weaves together his themes with wit and seriousness in an array of carefully crafted, thoughtful and thought-provoking poems."

National Poetry Day: Shedworking poem

Here is Where Earwigs Dare by the marvellous Matt Harvey, arguably still the finest poem ever written about shedworking:

A silver trail across the monitor;
Fresh mouse-droppings beneath the swivel-chair;
The view obscured by rogue japonica.
Released into the wild, where earwigs dare -

You first went freelance - and then gently feral.
You worked from home - and then wandered out again,
Roughed it with spider, ant, shrew, blackbird, squirrel
In your own realm, your micro-vatican.

No name conveys exactly what it is -
Chalet? Gazebo? You were not misled
By studios, snugs, garden offices,
Workshops or outhouses. A shed's a shed -

And proud of it. You wouldn't want to hide it -
Wifi-enable rain-proof wooden box.
A box to sit in while you think outside it -
Self-rattling cage, den, poop-deck, paradox,

Hutch with home-rule, cramped cubicle of freedom,
Laboratory, thought-palace, bodger's bower,
Plot both to sow seeds and to go to seed in,
Cobwebbed, Cuprinol-scented, Seat of Power.

Matt's excellent collection The Hole in the Sum of my Parts is published by the Poetry Trust, nicely illustrated by David Hughes, and I would urge all readers to snap up a copy now. You can buy direct from Matt's site shop here. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Shed-Fever: garden office poetry

Another fine example to add to the folder of garden office poetry, Shed-Fever (inspired by John Masefield's Sea Fever) by poet, priest, and musician Malcolm Guite from his collection After Prayer. It's also featured in an excellent piece Guite wrote for the Church Times and he talks about his own writing hut in a separate CT article here. Here's a snippet:

I have a little hut at the bottom of the garden, which is called (more in hope than expectation) the Temple of Peace. I borrowed the name from Gladstone; for, in any house he inhabited, that was the name that he gave to his study. Not that my little hexagonal hut, which is, to be honest, no more than a glorified gazebo, would stand comparison with the spacious rooms, well stocked bookshelves, and lovely big desks that furnished the various “Temples of Peace” enjoyed by the Grand Old Man.

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Poetry from the Poem Shed

This sounds intriguing. At the Shell Chester Literature Festival on October 30 at 2pm in the Wesley Centre there will be an event called Poetry from the Poem Shed featuring Leih Steggall, Andrew Rudd, Judy Ugonna, Peter Berry, Clive McWilliam and Gill McEvoy, a group of prize-winning Cheshire-based poets who will read samples of their work.
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New shed books for 2012

2012 looks like it could be a bumper year for books about sheds. Here are two early contenders for shed book of the year. First in line is My Cool Shed: An Inspirational Guide to Stylish Hideaways by Jane Field-Lewis, published by Pavilion towards the end of June. Here's the blurb:

"Building on the success of My Cool Caravan and My Cool Campervan in 2010 and 2011, this follow-up book celebrates the humble and not so humble shed, from artists' studios to beach huts, and the diverse ways in which owners are styling them. My Cool Shed features 35 sheds, small cabins, garden rooms, beach huts, modern architectural mini masterpieces and other small spaces given purpose by their owners to pursue their hobbies, careers, creative endeavours or just to find some peace and solitude. The book includes high-quality stylish photography to show a wide range of well styled and elegant sheds, cabins, dens and hidewaways in attractive locations. The owners' stories and accompanying style notes offer insight as well as inspiration. This is not a 'how to' book, although a sourcebook will be included, but more of a 'feel good' book and provider of inspiration."

And then there's The Joy of Sheds: Because a Man's Place Isn't in the Home by Frank Hopkinson published by Portico in May. And here's the blurb: "The Joy of Sheds is a shed miscellany that chronicles man's need for a small space on his own. It's a humorous look at every aspect of the shed experience, mixed with shed facts and some practical information too. Many famous people have created in sheds. Inventor Trevor Baylis thought up the clockwork radio in a shed, George Bernard Shaw wrote Pygmalian in one and Dylan Thomas would compose poetry in his. The average UK male does not tend to devote his shed to poetry, though. Along with chapters on how to customize your shed into an exotic creation, "Pimp Your Shed", there are "Shed Facts": Almost a fifth of men have had an accident in a shed, it's the single most dangerous place in the home after the kitchen. Other chapters include "Shed Vision", on the typical items stored in sheds, and "The Genus Shed", which places the shed in the Linnaean order of buildings. "Shed Experience" pulls in shed stories from around the world, but particularly Australia, and there are also tales of the "Euro-Shed". There are chapters on "Sheds in Literature" (Lady Chatterly's Lover and Cold Comfort Farm), "Sheds at the Movies", and "Sheds in Music".

And of course, if you don't yet own a copy, Shedworking: The Alternative Workplace Revolution is also a decent read...
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Book the writing hut at the Poetry Pharmacy's Physic Garden

We're big fans of the new writing hut at the Poetry Pharmacy's Physic Garden in Bishop's Castle run by poet Deborah Alma. We reported last month about how it had hit a crowdfunding target and were delighted to see early images of what it looks like inside. If you also like the look of it, you can now book a slot in the hut (the Physic Garden if only open by appointment) - as well as the space to write, it also has supplies to make your own herbal infusion as well as a lovely view across the garden and the rooftops of the town. And it's free (although donations are of course always welcome and help keen the garden looking shipshape).

And here's what it looks like from outside.

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The Shed - music and poetry venue

Well done to the dozens of you who emailed me to point out that I'd left an even bigger clue to Saturday's Name That Shed than I intended - it is, of course, the pint-sized music and poetry venue in Ryedale, North Yorkshire, run by Simon Thrackray, The Shed. Created by Simon Thackray in 1992, it punches well above its weight and attracts a top class international selection of performers. It's a pretty intimate space with room for only 100 people, but it's extremely well supported. If you're in the area (which is indeed the ancestral homelands of the Shedworking staff), it's well worth a visit.
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National Shed Week: Shed Poet Laureates

If you needed any more persuading that shedlife is inspirational, then take a look at Shed of the Year runner-up Simon Kirby's video at Newbury Today. Not only does he show us around his marvellous shed, he also finishes off with a special Ode to A Shed and promises that he is working on a book of shed-inspired poetry.Meanwhile John Davies aka Shedman has been busy in his specially-erected B&Q shed (pictured above) at the Ledbury Poetry Festival, performing and welcoming fellow shed enthusiasts. He has certainly not been idle as he has also written a special poem for National Shed Week:

Encomium for Shed Week

In Shedbury they’re celebrating the winners of Shedweek,
flags and bunting deck the streets and houses of Shedwick;
Sheddingham resounds to the cheers of sheddie folk
and Bedfordshire has change its name to extend the joke.

In allotments, along the tracks, the sheds of Britain amass
to join the chorus of salute to the winners of each class.
'All hail!' they cry, as thunderclouds deliver another load,
leaving the sheds slightly damp but not at all subdued.

And to you, Tim from Sudbury, the highest accolade:
The Rugby Pub of Suffolk, the finest ever made;
octagonal with roof lights, complete with double doors
three fridges and a hammock, Shed of the Year is yours.

Upsteps a larch-lapped champion to raise the cry again
across United Sheddom, from every shed and man:
'To you the victor’s laurels, to you the winner’s band!
The Rugby Pub of Suffolk is the best shed in the land!'
©Shedman 2008 All rights reserved

Keep up to date with all the latest happenings at Shedblog, the official blog of National Shed Week 2008.

Poetry cabin

Poetry cabin for the young Poet Laureate @warsan_shire in @noordinarypark pic.twitter.com/A1oS5zMLg4
— The Brokedown Palace (@TheBrokedownPal) July 26, 2014

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Shedman - garden office poetry

Plenty of famous writers have put pen to paper in sheds, but far fewer have made a career out of writing about them. Blazing the trail is Shedman, otherwise known as Brighton-based writer and poet John Davies whose marvellous work is featured on a regular basis in The Shed magazine.

“I am fascinated by the tension and connections between two apparently separate categories the natural and the artificial,” says John, who has read his work at readings around the country and recently featured on BBC2’s Gardeners’ World as well as the book Shedmen. “Sheds are so like us, transient and fragile. They can represent a private space we all desire for work or play. They can be places of quiet contemplation. They can be the threshold to risk and adventure. Sheds offer a great way of networking across a community and of introducing people to poetry and literature indirectly in an enjoyable and intriguing way.”

John is now working on a book about the cultural history of sheds. “Although sheds are very much about an individual in a private space, they have an amazing ability to bring people together.”

For a free copy of The Shed - the bimonthly pdf magazine focusing on the lifestyles of shedworkers and homeworkers - containing examples of John's poems please email me here.