Tapestry Poem in Canterbury – A campus anthology in many voices
Why this story
What I loved about this project was the sense of many voices sharing one space. The Arts programme at Canterbury Christ Church University invited students to post their thoughts, images and fragments of writing on a shared Padlet, and my role was to help turn that raw material into a single campus anthology.
I wanted the finished piece to feel like walking through the campus in words – noticing small details, overhearing conversations, and giving students the sense that their voices belonged together on the page.
How I approached it
We started by gathering everyone’s Padlet posts, then I read through them slowly, looking for patterns in tone, image and feeling. I wasn’t trying to tidy the voices up; I wanted to notice what kept returning – certain phrases, places on campus, small moments of connection.
From there, I began to shape a poem that could hold those different voices together without flattening them. The aim was to keep the looseness and energy of the original posts, while giving the piece a clear shape so it could sit comfortably on the page as part of the anthology.
Published Excerpt
This poem was created from student posts on a shared Padlet during the pandemic.
Each line began as someone’s small moment – a fear on the pavement, a snack, a screen, a change in the weather – then was edited and arranged into a single tapestry poem for exhibition on campus.
What this taught me
This project reminded me that editing isn’t about smoothing everything out – it’s about listening for what’s already there and giving it a shape. I learned that I enjoy working with many voices at once, and that I can help people see their own words differently when they’re brought together on the page.