Poetry to explore writing from the woods

Hidden in the wood:
potash, charcoal, resin, tar.
Treasures forgotten.

If you don’t recognise it, that’s a haiku, a type of short-form poetry that originates from Japan. When written in English, its unrhymed form often consists of 17 syllables arranged over three lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables respectively. Traditionally, the content focuses on nature and the seasons.

Now this author is no poet, but for the interest of background research and always open to learning new skills, I recently attended a PoTaRCh workshop on haiku’s and was challenged to write a poem on forestry-by-products such as charcoal, resin, tar, and potash.

PoTaRCh is a research network focusing on forest by-products in order to highlight the traditional heritage of forest use and the role of these products in our industrial history. It aims to demonstrate the value of these products to different communities and their socio-economic growth, as well as their impact on biodiversity and climate throughout time.

We catch up with Zoë Hazell from Historic England, Lead of the PoTaRCh Working Group on Heritage to learn more about the project:

As researchers we spend a lot of time writing dry factual things like reports and documents so poetry is a nice way to bring the creative arts and a different way of thinking into our academic work. Poems can be a powerful lens through which we can explore different aspects of our interdisciplinary practice as well as engaging others with our work.

The idea came about after I attended a poetry activity organised by Historic England. I was a bit apprehensive beforehand as I didn’t know if it was my thing but I really enjoyed it and was inspired to organise one for the Action. In essence we want to use poems to prompt new ways of thinking and writing about the past, present, and future of these key non-timber forest products.

How did you teach researchers to write haikus?

During our short workshop researcher and poet Dr Abbi Flint guided us through the writing process. We broke the ice with a short free writing exercise, listened to example haikus, and then wrote our own. The workshop was the main event in terms of the participants’ involvement; the aim was for members to write a haiku within that time, as I didn’t want it to be a large time commitment. This was quite achievable, due to the short nature of a haiku and the support provided by Abbi during the workshop.

The goal was to create a relaxed and supportive space to experiment in writing creatively. Participants, many of whom had no experience, were very open and engaged. By the end of the workshop, participants had written and shared many poems in English but also in other languages such as Serbian, Estonian, and Czech.

It’s never easy to be pushed out of your comfort zone, but I also think that people need to be pushed from time to time because that is a unique way to be opened to new ideas and horizons. I can see myself using poetry in the future to communicate about my work; it's a very good option for communicating different ideas. Aleksandra Fostikov, member of PoTaRCh and workshop participant

The nature of Haiku made me think about those ‘little’ moments during a project: having lunch, looking up at the tree canopy on a bright day, or walking through a murky wintery woodland as the heritage appears out of the gloom for example. I would really like to explore how these often shared experiences might be captured, encouraging the wider community to participate. I feel poetry could really enhance a project’s outcome, particularly in regards to ownership, and perhaps an improved sense of belonging to a location/landscape. Christopher Atkinson, member of PoTaRCh and workshop participant.

What is your goal with the haiku you collate?

The overall plan is to compile a poetry anthology, ‘From the woods’, written by our Action members on any aspect of woodland products (potash, tar, resin, charcoal) and their work. I am hoping for a collection that covers the broad-ranging topics and geographical spread of our members, to showcase the multidisciplinarity of our work and bring it to new audiences. It will be published, with accompanying illustrations and photos, as an output of the project, to be launched at our Action’s annual meeting in February 2026.

Example of one of the PoTaRCh haiku, written by Aleksandra Fostikov:

Kap po kap
Crna tecnost lije
Pec u bure pljuje

Drop by drop,
Black liquid pours,
The stove spits into the barrel.

An important aspect of our work is communicating and explaining what we do to non-specialists and members of the public. Through this workshop, we have used creative writing to enable us to express more of our personal insights, experiences and connections that we have with these PoTaRCh products and their forest settings. I hope that by writing in such a way, our work will be more accessible and act as a ‘way in’ to engaging with audiences more-widely, particularly with those who might not encounter our work otherwise.

Why poetry as a form of science communication?

• Poetry speaks across disciplines;
• It evokes sensorial and affective dimensions in a way that traditional academic prose might not;
• Allows you to write from different perspectives and voices;
• Poetry can make the familiar strange through creative use of language and metaphor;
• It challenges the primacy of traditional academic writing and offers a different way to express yourself and your work;
• It opens up new spaces and routes to engage with others;
• Speaks to how people feel, allowing people to connect with research emotionally as well as intellectually.

Input provided by Dr Abbi Flint

Further information

The poems written by the members of PoTaRCh will be published, alongside English translations, in an upcoming final publication, with a planned release of February 2026.

If you are interested in other projects merging poetry and science then check out the Sciku project, the latest scientific and mathematical discoveries presented as haiku.