Curated and hosted by poet Kim Moore, our online contemporary poetry series is part poetry reading, part open mic – and the guest poet and open mic theme change every time! We will be listening to what poets have to say about our turbulent times, and how poetry can cross borders to challenge, delight and inspire us.

Our next event will feature the poet Jean Sprackland, who will be reading from her recently published poetry collection Goyle, Chert, Mire (Cape, 2026). Jean’s latest collection explores the Blackdown Hills as a landscape where past and present meet.

Wordsworth’s poetry is rooted in such moments of transition: the instant when perception alters, when memory rises to meet the present, when the mind becomes attentive to what lies just beyond the familiar. Sprackland’s book traces similar thresholds—between illness and recovery, clarity and distortion, landscape and consciousness—revealing how these crossings shape our understanding of place and self.

Our open mic theme then is an invitation to engage with boundaries of any kind—geographical, temporal, emotional or cognitive—echoing the transformative encounters at the heart of both Sprackland’s work and Wordsworth’s enduring vision.

Open mic slots are limited and must be booked in advance.  Each open mic poem should be no longer than two minutes. Email Kim Moore at wordsworthreadingseries@outlook.com for a slot. Slots do book up quickly, so don’t leave it to the last minute!

How to book and attend

When attendees book a ticket they will receive a confirmation email which includes the Zoom registration link for this event: please use this link to sign up.

This event is a Zoom webinar and the audience will not appear on screen. If you have bought a ticket and signed up to the open mic your audio and video will be enabled during the open mic.

Five free places are available for those experiencing financial hardship that would otherwise not be able to attend. You can select this option during online checkout. If you have booked a free place and find that you can’t attend, please let us know so that we can make this available to someone else.

Automatic live captions will be provided.