This Sunday, 2 June 2019, there is a chance to hear poetry read in the Botanic Cottage, with afternoon tea and nature-inspired poems from award-winning and widely published poets. Booking is required: https://www.rbge.org.uk/whats-on/poetry-reading-in-the-botanic-cottage/26133).

One of the poets who will be reading is the delightful Anna Crowe, who told me that she thinks her love of writing and passion for words dates back to going on walks in Cornwall with her grandmother and finding wild flowers and then discovering they had wonderful-sounding names, like bugle, loosestrife, agrimony, tormentil, feverfew, and toadflax!

Anna’s visit to the Herbaria at RBGE and St Andrews resulted in two poems about seaweed, one of which she will definitely be reading this Sunday.

It is wonderful to think of the Herbarium as a source of inspiration for poetry. I find Anna’s poetry truly wondrous and captivating, all the more so having witnessed her enthusiasm when I introduced her to the herbarium world. Anna’s seaweed poems have not yet been published but she has given me permission to use a quote for this blogpost.

So, to give you a taste of what Sunday’s event might have to offer, in one of her poems, Anna aptly evokes images of Laminaria digitata when she writes “and these her gloves, this oarweed like rich, brown watered silk, adorned with jaunty tassels”.

Anna Crowe has a new collection out in September, from Arc, called Not on the Side of the gods… For more information, see Anna’s website at www.annacrowe.co.uk.