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Amidst birds passing over or nesting by the Solway Firth in southern Scotland, writer Kayo Chingonyi explores the role of poetry in bringing humans and non-human animals closer. He asks why we turn to poetry to fill the space between human and animal life and discovers ways in which poetry is a powerful human form for entering into the unstructured, more instinctive world of non \\u2013human animals. He walks through the wetlands with poet Isabel Galleymore and poetry scholar Sam Solnick. He also talks to newly appointed professor of poetry at Oxford University, Alice Oswald, along with Joshua Bennett and Onno Oerlemans.

The programme features full readings or extracts from the following poems:\\nTame by Sarah Howe\\nBlack Rook in Rainy Weather by Sylvia Plath\\nTo A Mouse by Robert Burns\\nPike by Ted Hughes\\nOtter by Seamus Heaney\\nThe Kingdom of Sediment by Jacob Polley\\nDear Whinchat by Belinda Zhawi\\nLimpet and Drill Tongued Whelk by Isabel Galleymore\\nSelf Portrait as Periplaneta Americana by Joshua Bennett\\nFlies by Alice Oswald\\nThe Moose by Elizabeth Bishop\\nElephants by Les Murray

Producer: Kate Bland

(Photo: Kayo Chingonyi with Isabel Galleymore, Sam Solnick and Brian Morrell at Caeverlokc Wetlands Centre. Credit: Kate Bland)