Now in its fifth year, Inner Room creates space for people to be creative.

Based in Devon, rooted in the Christian faith and overseen by the Parish of Central Exeter, Inner Room welcomes poetry readers and writers of any faith or none. It was piloted in 2019 and launched just before the first lockdown in 2020.

In 2021, it published The Watchful Heart, an anthology of work written during or inspired by the project and edited by the Exeter-based writer Richard Skinner and by me. If the title sounds familiar, that might be because it’s a phrase from Derek Mahon’s poem Everything is Going to be All Right.

Inner Room has so far run more than 150 poetry reading or creative writing sessions, and believes that:

• everyone is creative (including you)

• we can all approach the universal through the particular details of our lives

• we are all invited to be creative by a creative God

If this resonates with you and you’re based in Devon, please do visit the Inner Room website to find out more.

And, wherever you live, you might like to check out the new project I’m piloting – Poems for the path ahead.