Ecopoetry Workshop with Published Poet, Christopher Horton

Explore nature’s everyday inspiration through group discussion, writing prompts and shared poems at this in-person workshop. Join this in-person poetry workshop for the local community, exploring place, ecopoetry and the environment. It is taking place in Meeting Room 2 at the UXBRIDGE Arts & Culture Centre in Howick, East Auckland. Orginally from the UK, Christopher Horton’s poetry has appeared in prominent journals such as The North, Poetry London, Poetry Wales, New Statesman, New Welsh Review, Ambit, Iota, Magma, The Wolf, and Stand, as well as in anthologies with publishers including Penned in the Margins, Broken Sleep Books, tall-lighthouse, and Days of Roses. He has published two chapbooks: • Perfect Timing (tall-lighthouse, 2021): Explores urban and rural life, human and animal interactions, and the subtleties of everyday experience. • Clutter Jar (Broken Sleep Books, 2025): A complex collection addressing masculinity, memory, technology, fatherhood, and the passage of time. The poems move between domestic interiors, urban and rural landscapes, and cosmic reflections, blending tenderness, mischief, and social awareness Nature, place and writing and Focus of the Workshop For many of us, nature is part of everyday life: it can support well-being and spark creative inspiration. Poets from John Keats and William Wordsworth to Alice Oswald have recognised nature’s ability to foster spiritual awareness and acuity. Our interconnectedness with the environment highlights its agency and power, as well as the emotional resonances it helps us express. What to expect • Talk together about the theme and what it means to you and your writing. • Try a series of writing exercises guided by prompts. • Listen to shared work and offer comments as a group. • If the weather allows, take a short walk to gather prompts such as leaves and twigs, and photograph natural settings for writing inspiration.