The Poetry Object 2012

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All Student Poems

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Poets

Robert Adamson, Rachael Briggs, Samantha Hogg, Astrid Lorange, Kate Middleton, Sarah-Jane Norman, Nicholas Powell

View all The Poetry Object 2012 poets

Poems

The Confessions of Saint Augustine, Thread, Visual Poetry, Suits, Empire, Abendessen, Cassette Sonnet, Sonnet for Brown Suit

View all The Poetry Object 2012 poems

Supporters

The Red Room Company relies on the generous support of individuals, corporations, government funding bodies and philanthropic foundations.

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Visit our online store to purchase publications and materials from this project. The Red Room Company is a not-for-profit organisation. All funds raised support the ongoing work of The Red Room Company.

 “Imagine my bracelet is the earth.”

-Laura, Forest Lodge Public School

 

The Project

The Poetry Object is a free writing project for students in Years 3-10 attending NSW Public Schools in the Sydney Region, run as part of our national poetry education program, Papercuts, and in collaboration with NSW Public Schools Sydney Region. 

Young writers and their teachers submit poems and photographs about objects that are special to them. Special objects that inspired poems in 2012 included statues and figures of animals, gems and jewels, pets, houses, glasses. Objects rare and mundane, which upon a closer look, reveal themselves to be full of specific meaning for the poet.

Participants in The Poetry Object created beautiful installations to display their poems and photographs at their school. Rose Bay Secondary College was awarded for its outstanding installation in a suitcase featuring special objects, poems and photographs - and made a fantastic video to boot - click here to watch.

The Poetry Object Exhibition

From November 12 - February 15,  The State Library of NSW hosted a special exhibition of poems, images and objects from The Poetry Object project. The winning and commended poems from students and teachers were exhibited alongside commissioned poems from poets including Robert Adamson and Kate Middleton. The exhibition was launched in a private event by Her Excellency, Professor Marie Bashir, AC, CVO, The Governor of New South Wales, and was emceed by The Chaser's Julian Morrow. 

A selection of commended poems created as part of The Poetry Object were also featured on international poetry blog, THEthe Poetry.

New Poems

As part of The Poetry Object, six celebrated Australian poets were commissioned to write new poems about their own talismanic objects. Winner of the Thomas Shapcott Prize, Nicholas Powell; performance poet and fellow Shapcott Prize winner Rachael Briggs; Judith Wright Prize runner-up Sarah-Jane Norman; 2011 City of Sydney Poet, Kate Middleton; Samantha Hogg, an exciting new voice in poetry; and the inimitable Robert Adamson unveilled new poems written specifically for The Poetry Object in November.

Resources

The Resources page for The Poetry Object features free downloadable resources to support schools engaging with the project.

State Library Workshops

During The Poetry Object 2012, The Red Room Company ran two workshops with poets Dr. Felicity Plunkett and Elizabeth Allen at the State Library of New South Wales. These workshops commissioned two new poems and reached over 60 students from 10 different schools.
Click through to see the poems created in Workshop #1
Click through to see the poems created in Workshop #2

For more information: please contact Tamryn Bennett, The Red Room Company's Education Manager by phone (02 9319 5090) or by email on education@redroomcompany.org.

The Poetry Object is an initiative of Papercuts, which is proudly supported by The Graeme Wood Foundation.