Mordros is Cornish for 'Sound of the sea'
We are a group of women poets living in Cornwall and we write about the sea. We've spent time running workshops across our county and getting people writing - children, young people, parents and carers. Using sensory and visual prompts, we've brought the sea right into our libraries and public spaces. We've put together poems both with and for our community.
The sea is our muse: she brings enjoyment to all - whether you're standing on a clifftop staring into those winter waves, or taking a dip on a mild summer's evening. Beachcombing and using these objects to inspire our poetry gave us new voices to use.
These poems are not only those created by our poets but also the words of children and adults that have connected with us. This book is their voice and their collective history of the sea. We have connected with those who are new to poetry; we know our community can be creative and we want to share their stories more widely.
Our workshops have been supported by FEAST funding to pay our poets for their time.
We now want to create a print book of 'Mordros: sound of the sea' so that our community can see their words on the page. We'll ensure that our books are placed in public libraries across the county, ensuring free access for all.
We aim to benefit our communities in the following ways:
- Everyone is capable of creating art through poetry
- Inspire and empower Cornish communities and individuals
- Create a strong group of women poets who can engage with communities
- Utilise creativity for inclusivity: everyone is capable of enhancing mental and physical wellbeing through connection with the ocean, everyone is capable of creating art through poetry
-Create a sense of community cohesion through fun, innovation and free/affordable poetry workshops and events
-Encourage and promote art that lasts, by creating a print copy of our sea poems that will be available at local libraries.
Who is involved?
Kate Barden has lived in West Cornwall all her life, and is embarrassed to confess that she has only tried surfing twice. Her poetry is published online, in a book for The Compassionate Friends and in Morvoren; a collaboration of poems about women who swim in the sea. Kate sings in an 80s covers band, collects tattoos, swims in the sea and rides pillion on a Harley.
Megan Chapman AKA MCMC Spoken is a lyrical rhyming wizard. Her unique rhythmic style and cutting content offers a mesmerising performance. Her poetic and hip-hop delivery infused with beats strings and vocals is beautifully raw and captures humanity. 'surfing centres my world; mindfully offering daily happiness and freedom. The best part of everyday and for me it is life’s main reason.'
Ulrike Duran Bravo currently lives and works on Scilly. With an MA in Creative Writing, she writes both poetry and short stories, published in the Cornwall Writers anthologies and The London Review and she has had a short play performed at The Berry Theatre. From a mixed German-Chilean heritage, she's found her place swimming in cold Atlantic waters.
Lauren Gauge is a queer working-class poet-playwright-performer telling visceral stories with & to celebrate the marginalised communities she's part of. Living & working in Cornwall, she's passionate about accessible arts. She wrote, produced and performed 'Becoming Mum and Dad during Lockdown'.
Abigail Ottley lives in Penzance. A keen swimmer until prevented by illness, the sea has always been a recurring theme in her work. Her favourite beach is Kennack Sands on The Lizard, which features in many of her poems and which she first knew as small child back in the late 1950’s. Bathing With My Father (My Cornwall 2014) and House (Atrium, 2017) are two poems which reflect the personal significance of this beautiful rocky haven.
Fi Read was brought up in Australia, but caught her first wave in Cornwall. A surf-taxi mum, she figured she might as well join in, buying herself a secondhand surfboard for her fortieth birthday. Seventeen years later, she still surfs like a kook, despite three of her four kids being surf instructors. Nurse, bar staff, life model, singer and writer, Fi cycles everywhere and can back-flip into water.
Polly Roberts is an explorer of people and place: a writer, counsellor, environmentalist and traveller. In 2017 Polly was awarded the British Council’s ‘Writers by Nature’ scholarship for emerging nature writers. Her debut poetry collection 'Grieving with the Animals' was published Summer 2019 by Dempsey and Windle. Her travel memoir, 'Social or Solitary' was released with arts-council funding. Polly leads writing for wellbeing workshops and creative writing sessions for all ages. Nature is her continuous muse, and she currently swims, walks and writes in Constantine. Her debut novel 'Together We Evolve' was released in 2023 and deals with themes of personal and environmental rewilding.
Christiana Symons is a former daily regional news reporter. She has a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Plymouth and has seen her work published in a number of journals, including the 'Cornwall Beneath and Beyond' anthology by Cornwall Writers. Christiana’s love of words has seen her teaching budding writers in secondary schools as well as inspiring poetry and short story writing with adults in coffee shops.
Ella Walsworth-Bell is an NHS speech therapist working within children’s mental health. She took an adult education evening class in creative writing and hasn’t looked back since. Every year, she lives aboard a boat with her family and this reconnects her to nature. Her favourite beach is any that she gets all to herself.
Reviews for Mor Poets previous anthologies 'Mordardh: surf poetry' and 'Morvoren: the poetry of sea swimming'
'This anthology picked me up and carried me like my first wave, it spoke of fear, devotion and love. Most powerfully, it spoke of the sea in all her moods, words written by women for whom waves form the sometimes roaring, sometimes gentle, rhythm of their lives.' – Mike Lay, Editor of Wavelength surf magazine
'The poems are elemental and celebratory, full of affirmation and energy. The sea is the patron saint of these surfer-poets, who find language fit to tell their thrilling tales. Highly recommended anthology!'- Penelope Shuttle
‘A collection that captures beautifully the sheer thrill of catching a wave and what it means to be a surfer on this peninsula today in all its messy complexity.’ – Wyl Menmuir
'I recognise so much of my own sea swimming in these stunning, anarchic, joyful poems.' - Katrina Naomi, poet and winner of the 2021 Keats-Shelley Prize
