'Go to the poets, they will speak to thee': Sarah Howe

About

Curated and hosted by poet Kim Moore, our online contemporary poetry reading series continues throughout 2025.

We will be listening to what poets have to say about our turbulent times, and how poetry can cross borders to challenge, delight and inspire us. Each event in the series is part reading, part open mic – and the theme of the open mic changes every time!

Our guest poet this month is the poet and editor Sarah Howe reading from her latest poetry collection Foretokens (Chatto, 2025). These are dazzling poems of motherhood, family and fragmented history that ask profound questions about our personal, social and cultural inheritances. These themes echo, in a modern context, some of the concerns of our guiding poet of this series, William Wordsworth. Wordsworth's poetry drew heavily on the cultural and social discussions of his time, asking readers to consider what they inherit and what they leave behind.

Open mic

Our open mic theme this month is to bring a poem that explores the idea of inheritance in all its forms – whether that is what we inherit from each other or what we plan to leave behind.