For our watery and wild Verb - which flows though the water of chalk streams, the ocean, a baby's bath water, and birth waters - Ian McMillan is joined by Ruth Padel, Vik Sharma, Caroline Bergvall and Will Burns. Ruth and Vik share their collaboration '24 Splashes of Denial' which combines an apprehension of loss with vast and delicate beauty, Will Burns reads a new commission for The Verb on his experience of chalk streams (a globally rare and 'gin-clear' habitat) in Buckinghamshire, and Caroline Bergvall opens a door in our watery imagination, tracing the idea of refuge in extracts from her project 'Nattsong'.

Wild Poetry 'Call-out' !

From Ian McMillan: "As part of the BBC’s celebration of our wild isles, we thought we’d tap into the deep waters of the Verb listeners’ collective and individual imaginations. We want to see your poems that use the idea of wildness as their seed – they could be as short as a haiku – or as long as twenty lines – that’s the limit. We're particularly interested in poems that take the word ‘wild’ itself on a journey. Email your poems to [email protected]. Although we won’t be able to respond to each poem, together they’ll give us a national snapshot - a moment in wild time that we’ll explore later in the year; we’ll share some of your poems on-air.