Liv Torc is a spoken word artist and Co-Director of Hot Poets, an initiative that brings poetry and science together to imagine better possible futures. A poetry weaver with a bold vision, she has a track record of delivering creative communication projects with global reach and tangible impact.
In 2020, her UK-wide poetry project Haiflu used crowdsourced haiku to document life under lockdown, engaging over 10k participants and reaching 50k viewers. It was one of the only poetry projects featured on BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme.
Liv has worked with the London School of Economics, the Met Office, and the United Nations, harnessing the power of poetry to communicate vital environmental messages to public and corporate audiences. Swaying minds, changing hearts.
Recently, Hot Poets teamed up with The Gaia Foundation and We Feed The UK on a major arts project. This collaboration paired acclaimed photographers and poets with regenerative farmers, urban growers, sustainable fishers, and grain rebels: the UK’s guardians of land, soil, sea, and seed.
We were honoured that Liv could join and guide us on our concluding group experience at the Be The Earth Festival.
Seated in a circle around a fire, Liv began her weaving from the centre.
She prompted us to each write our own haiku: on nature, on system change, on our experience over the last 4 days. We shared our 3 lines, 17 syllables; Liv worded her magic. Within minutes, she had knitted our individual musings into one collective poem.
She performed it with conviction and joy.
Here is our communal experience.
Be the Earth Festival – Group Poem
Tipping, Tucking, Ticking, Picking,
Licking, Sticking, Flitting, Knitting Point
Forty-Two Acres,
I went garden grazing there,
a life changing time.
Hair raising,
towel drying,
perspective shifter,
luminous reflector,
material alchemiser,
civilisation starter.
Nature’s revenge
enables life.
Golden butterfly,
flaming lotus heart,
toasty toes,
song circle,
infinite potential.
Conversations unfolding.
Why do we believe?
When if we look more closely
We could see the truth!
It starts with…
an owl at night,
the wind in the trees whispering,
‘Keep nature at heart’.
Beavers, mushrooms,
wild white stalks,
moles, crickets,
small pond's mystery.
It starts with soil,
build topsoil through composting
nutritious and rich.
No more wasted food,
farms in every neighbourhood,
with a 100 year plan
for beauty and life,
connected networks
and small scale local growers
feeding the whole world.
It starts with the land,
mushrooms are the medicine
grow them everywhere,
compost the system,
our mycelial connections
create food, fuel and resilience.
Permaculture
in communities of love
to grow abundance.
It starts with...
letting go of isolation,
we can have enough.
Run our world on sun,
where light brings
power and hope again.
It starts with realising love
is already in us all,
phoenix rising,
spirit cleanser
pleasure giver
family invitor.
Half the art of achieving justice for all
is co-creation,
openhearted love
will be the fire of freedom.
The insects come back
the plants start to thrive again,
powered by wonder.
We sing to the land
look each other in the eyes
let our tears flow.
The ladybird appears
and I know I am guided
I breathe,
I am home.
By the Be The Earth Festival participants, edited by Liv Torc, Hot Poets.
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