Writing Hampshire - Mapping the County through Poetry

A map of poems about what Hampshire means to the people who live, work, study, play or visit here.

Poetry Map

We invite you to read the poems all pinpointed to the locations that inspired them on our Poetry Map.

Send us your poem

Send us your own for potential selection. All we ask is that the poem is connected to a place in Hampshire that matters to you. Open to all ages and you don’t need to live in Hampshire to join in.

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How to Write Hampshire ~ a Poem

What places make your life? For me, a plain, straight street,
where four times I’ve seen the blossom burst, then brown, then fall.
Four times the pink dunes of their petals; twice the road skimmed smooth by snow.
Where our daughter’s soles first slapped tarmac; where gardens are small
but float on sun. And always a surf of motorway, growling of the big stuff, far away.
This is where I root – where I grow from, reach for, am.  

Reach inside yourself. What counts is always there: the wind on your face,
or the aircon fan. The grace of swans on water, or wheels on ramps.
How cars or rivers rolled like thunder, how sales girls or ponies shook their manes.
Wherever it is that touches you — office, playground, high street, school;
garden, bedroom, field, beach — say it in a poem. Pick out the strongest, exact and true,
use words that are most your own — and give us a place, a time, and you.

Brian Evans-Jones, Hampshire Poet 2012