ABSTRACT
This chapter is based on empirical qualitative research into poetry writing by pupils in two secondary schools on their own places and identities. Pupils undertook observational writing, creative photography and group discussions about their relationships to places lived in; these activities were followed by the shaping of such experiences into poems. The chapter raises pertinent questions around the nature of young people’s complex identities in areas often side-lined as rural backwaters, and either denigrated or idealized as such. Because the focus is ultimately on poetry, further, there is a distinctly celebratory aspect to the activity, but the process towards poetic creation (and sometimes the product too) reveals fascinating critical thinking.
