Poetry Extra: The Refuge Box

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BBC Radio 4 Extra

Poetry Extra

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Weekly opportunity for listeners to revisit the riches of the BBC radio poetry archive

A brand new poetry slot on Radio 4 Extra gives listeners a weekly opportunity to revisit the riches of the BBC radio poetry archive

The Refuge Box

BBC Radio 4 Extra - Poetry Extra, The Refuge Box

Daljit Nagra revisits the BBC's poetry archive and finds another highlight.

Daljit Nagra selects Between the Ears: The Refuge Box with a radio poem by Katrina Porteous inspired by Northumbria.  From 2007.

Daljit Nagra revisits the BBC's poetry archive and chooses Between the Ears: The Refuge Box with poet Katrina Porteous.

Half way between Holy Island and the mainland of Northumbria a flight of steps leads to a wooden cabin on stilts - the Refuge Box.

It was built to save people cut off by the tide from being swept away and drowned. 

This is the focus of a radio poem by Katrina Porteous; the physical embodiment of sanctuary, the power of this idea, and its fragility. 

Her poetry, recorded all over Holy Island and in the Refuge Box itself, is interspersed by other voices: island fishermen who remember rescues and tragedies, the coastguard and lifeboat crew, the bird warden, the Franciscan vicar of Holy Island, and a refugee who fled her west African homeland to seek sanctuary in Britain. 

Beyond the human voices is the poetry of the place itself, the seals singing, the wheeze of swans flying over Holy Island, sudden jet fighters protecting this sanctuary yet violating its peace and, always, the wind and the sea.   

Producer: Julian May

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2007.

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