An Orchestra of Unexpected Sounds: A Collective Poem
On the eve of the first UK lockdown, in March 2020, many of the poets featured in this anthology met together to write at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield. We greeted each other, hands gloopy with sanitiser, through bumped elbows rather than hugs. The young children found it hard to keep their two-metre distance. Gone were the shared biscuits; still in place was a shared, deep-seated desire to connect – to each other, to the world, to the act of writing as a catharsis and a joy.
So despite – or perhaps because of – the uncertainty of that time, we wrote and discussed each other’s work almost hungrily. While news flashed up on screens in our coat pockets to tell us this would be the last day people could collectively meet inside, we wrote about flinging our doors open to the world, looking out, inviting people in. We parcelled up poems that spoke of friendship, community and welcome, and placed them on the table like gifts. We left with these beginnings of poems in our hands: small treasures for the coming months indoors, that could be unwrapped again and again.
An Orchestra of Unexpected Sounds was written by poets from 19 countries, all part of the Change the Word collective who have made the UK their home. The project began in a time characterised by newness, stillness and isolation. A time in which we were compelled to cast off our expectations of the world and learn how to truly listen to each other and to the space around us. A time spent looking through our windows to the outdoors, and staring into the windows of our laptops and phones.
As a poetry collective, we meet on Zoom every week since lockdown began. Change the Word was an anchor in our days, a way of staying connected and creative that was a solace for us all. We let each other see through the windows on our screens to the many-coloured rooms of our homes. And, in doing so, we’ve opened up windows into our lives.
It began with this 1 poem, written collectively by 39 Good Chance Artists across 19 countries, all reflecting on what they could see out of their windows from wherever they were locked down, and on what hope there is to be found in the light out there. And it became a full collection of poems that draws attention to the orchestra of unexpected sounds, sights, emotions and imaginings that fill our days, and encourage us to listen anew to what the world has to say.
