Lee Nelson is a poet and educator from Luton. He has been writing and performing poetry for nearly 30 years. His work has rhythm and grit, humour and commitment. Lee thinks that the purpose of art is to change the world. Art makers and those who enjoy art all have a role to play.
For his Nature Calling commission, Lee created a short collection - Sharpenhoe Begins - inspired by visits to the Chilterns with community groups.
"From the beginning I had an idea of the basics of what I wanted the poems to 'say', but what was less clear was how they would get it said. It was important that things were not be too much from one point of view - the intention is to draw people out to see for themselves. That said, the initial research chats suggested that at least part of the issue was people not feeling 'invited' or 'permitted' to get out to the green spaces and that wanted looking at for sure. Then there was the need to communicate the simple stuff, the freshness, the freedom the fairness, the space, the time, the chances that being outdoors can bring. Then there was the need for the work itself to be welcoming and accessible...
In the collection, we begin at Sharpenhoe Begins , where my time on hills began, then to Waulud's Bank to see what Luton is all about, on to Beginners' Hill, setting an agenda and a reason for ascending, WHOWHATWHEREWHENWHY, wonders what you might do when you are up there and why you would go more than once, Running Full Pelt, is about joy and liberation under the sky, Do Tell, asks you what you found and The Mainstream, is the poet preaching just a little bit... then in The Good Air of the Chilterns, there's local detail and local history and local issues leading up to that vital invitation to everyone to come outside. Finally, a slightly daft coda that hints at what you might bring back from the hilltop and use to open up the valley.
In the end the process was processing the process (if that isn't too tortured...). The job was drawing out and setting down in words real feelings from the responses of people to the earth beneath, the sky above and the self between. Hopefully I did an honest job..."
