The Murmuration of Words Project: Writing Poetry Collectively

For the past year or so I have been collaborating in a group poetry project organised by Bean Sawyer. Each month, a poem is started by Bean or another guest poet, then posted on to the next person to write the next verse, then the next person to write the next verse, and so on. When the poem is complete, it is sent home to Bean.

Bean has aptly named this project ‘The Murmuration of Words’. As a writer, Bean is very good at naming things. In this post I’ll explore more about murmurations as a model for working collectively, and about the experience of writing as a group.

I have found there are profound differences between poetry as a collective practice and poetry as a rarefied artform created by a singular ‘poet’. I think this has interesting implications for all creative projects, including at the grandest scale working to shape a future world we want to see.

On murmurations

I will start by quoting extensively from adrienne maree brown. In her work Emergent Strategy she takes examples from nature for how we might organise to effect social change. She has the following to say about murmurations:

I love this description of tuning into each other and taking cue from each other’s movements. I think it captures how in our poetry project you have to listen to the verses that have come before and let that inform your direction. But more than this, it describes a process that operates without ego. And that, I think, is a big deal for poetry.

Challenging the idea of the lone ‘poet’

Usually poetry is not only written alone but also serves to define the writer as an individual. As in, ‘poet’ is a special status conferred if the writing is good enough. A ‘poet’ stands apart from everyone else, in their powers of observation, sensitivity, and eloquence. If they are brilliant enough, they may become a ‘published poet’. And so exceptionalism and competition creep into the endeavour.

This has been enough to stop me writing entirely in the past. I’m well aware my creative writing is not extraordinary. I am not a ‘poet’, and so I don’t do it at all.

Thankfully, this has changed with this project. Contributing a verse to an emerging poem rather than creating something that is ‘mine’ has been freeing. So now I am writing, which turns out to be the defining feature of a poet after all.

Domesticating poetry

Another notable aspect of the Murmuration of Words project is its domestic nature. The poems arrive at home, dropping through the letterbox. Bean asks us to turn them around within three days, although this can be defied to some extent so it fits in with life.

We usually write using the renga form. Verse A has three lines: seven syllables, then five syllables, then seven. Verse B has two lines of seven syllables. The pattern repeats ABAB etc. So the requirement is to write as little as 14 syllables before sending the poem on again.

This is manageable and I usually fit it in in the evening, after my son is in bed. There is no need to have a writing shed to retreat to, or to go wandering in the wilderness in search of inspiration. Again, the project quietly subverts the idea of the ‘poet’ and removes the barriers to becoming one.

Poetry as process

The Murmuration of Words project makes interesting the process of creating the poems. The letters and gifts that arrive with the poems and the trips to the Post Office to send them on again are all part of the activity. Participating is not all about the end result; if anything, the poems are a kind of fantastic byproduct.

Some of the poems have been lost in the post and that’s OK. They existed like music disappearing into air. To me, this is part of the relinquishing of control that characterises the project.

Yin poetry

Yin is also feminine to yang’s masculine. As such, thinking of the Murmuration of Words as ‘yin’ encapsulates how the project resists hierarchical and patriarchal ideas of the ‘poet’ as an exceptional individual working in isolation, away from domestic life. In its focus on process not product, and connecting not competing, I would also characterise it as an anti-capitalist poetry.

Poetry and life

adrienne maree brown teaches us to ‘practice, in every possible way, the world we want to see’ and that ‘how we are at the small scale is how we are at the large scale’. The Murmuration of Words project is a poetry practice that aligns with the world I want to see, and brown’s words give me confidence I am not being overly grand to link writing these 14-syllable verses with large scale thinking. It is important to me that our writing practices are imbued with the values we want to enact in the world.

In real life

There is going to be an exhibition of poems created through the Murmuration of Words project, and related artworks, in St Davids, Pembrokeshire (Wales) from 25 October – 16 December 2024. There is an opening event on Saturday 26 October when many of the poets will be present, including myself. We’ll be making badges and singing and celebrating the project so do come along if you can.

Alongside the exhibition there will be several workshops led by the guest poets who have contributed to the project, some of which are online so can be enjoyed wherever you are in the world. There is also a booklet of the first 50 poems for sale, and commerative postcards… Click on the image below to find out more.

If you would like to join the Murumuration of Words project you can also do that, find out more here.