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Poetry comissions

Poet in the City is an exciting and innovative venture philanthropy charity committed to attracting new audiences to poetry, making new connections for poetry, and raising money to support poetry education, in particular the placing of poets in schools.

"Everyone is waking up to the dangers of global warming and environmental damage, and it is only right that poets and poetry should be contributing in an active way to communicating this crucial message both within and beyond the financial community. This is a bold artistic collaboration between a cutting edge charity and one of the City's most famous institutions." - Graham Henderson, Chief Executive, Poet in the City

Poet in the City – climate change poets
Working with Poet in the City, Lloyd's has commissioned new poetry from three contemporary British poets - Patience Agbabi, John Burnside and Matthew Hollis - on the subject of climate change.

Front cover of Trees in the City booklet
Trees in the City

A Collectors' Edition of these poems was designed and produced by Axon Publishing.

pdf icon Download Trees in the City (700KB, pdf)

A glass of light rain not wine, grey not white, filling to meniscus height, is mercury rising thick as hate by Centigrade, by Farenheit, till overflowing. From the poem 'October dawn revisited' by Patience Agbabi
Patience Agbabi poem.

Patience Agbabi is one of the UK’s most talented and innovative poets. Born in 1965 to Nigerian parents she combines award-winning literary output with smart and cutting-edge live performance. Her ground-breaking debut collection, R.A.W., was published in 1995. 

pdf icon Download climate change poems by Patience Agbabi (220KB)

arrrow iconListen to climate change poems by Patience Agbabi


Sooner or later it comes, the impossible world: a memory of snowfall in the trees, rock pools and harp seals lost in a glass of water. From the poem 'Drought' by John Burnside
John Burnside poem.

John Burnside, born in Dunfermline in 1955, is one of the UK’s most distinguished literary poets, whose prodigious output includes not only award-winning poetry but also novels and short stories. His collection, The Asylum Dance, was published in 2000.

pdf icon Download climate change poems by John Burnside (170KB)




She looks out from a dark door. Her hands are sore from salting, her back from ageing bone; the skies are quiet, the cattle gone. From the poem 'She look out from a dark door' by Matthew Hollis
Matthew Hollis poem.

Matthew Hollis, born in 1971 in Norwich, has been acclaimed as one of the UK’s finest new poets, with a wonderful eye and a great sensitivity to both emotion and landscape. His first collection, Groundwater, was published in 2004.

pdf icon Download climate change poems by Matthew Hollis (360KB)

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