The Ground You Know

From December 2023 – January 2024, Friends of the Earth groups in West Yorkshire invited poets from across our region to send handwritten poems about nature, our local environment and the Climate Emergency, to the Mayor of West Yorkshire, Tracy Brabin.

#GetClimateGoalsonTrack campaigners met with Tracy Brabin at the end of January 2024 and she expressed her strong appreciation both of this campaign and of the poems themselves.

The campaign was called ‘The Ground You Know.’ This phrase comes from Start Close In, a poem by David Whyte, who was born and brought up in West Yorkshire: he articulates our feelings about commitment and campaigning: Start with the ground you know, the pale ground beneath your feet,/your own way of starting the conversation. David himself chose this poem to launch the campaign.

Here are some of the poems which the Mayor received – such huge thanks to those who sent them!