Inside Story Factory’s Plant-A-Poem stall at Sydney Writers’ Festival
11 Jun 2026
By Caoimhe Deering
Amidst the buzz of author talks and panel discussions at the Sydney Writers’ Festival at Carriageworks, our Plant-A-Poem stall offered visitors a quiet moment to envision their hopes for the year ahead.
We were incredibly excited to be back at the Sydney Writers’ Festival this year with a beautiful stall in the halls of Carriageworks. Like last year’s stall The Giving Shop, this year’s Plant-A-Poem was manned by young people from our Year of Poetry program, armed with poems they had worked on in their weekly workshops. The interactive stall invited festival-goers to partake in conversation about their hopes and dreams, and share an intention or goal.
“I want to be healthy and I want to be happy and I want to be creative” responded one visitor. Other people’s answers ranged from advancing careers, to spending more time with family, to simply learning to slow down. In return, our fantastic young poets carefully paired visitors with a poem that best honoured these hopes.
The poems, printed onto little slips of paper, were then placed into a glass jar along with some native seeds and planting instructions. Visitors walked away with a personalised poem and the tools with which to plant the dreams they had discussed with our young poets.
“The students’ poetry was such a highlight.” said Philip Wilcox, Special Projects Manager at Story Factory. “Tiny poems that spoke about vast and complex truths. There was a wisdom and a wry humour in their writing that belied the young minds that penned these words.”
“Aside from the poetry, one of the surprising things was seeing the young people take complete and utter control over the whole event. Operating the EFTPOS, selling their books, restocking supplies, guiding patrons through the experience – it was wonderful to see them in a position of power and responsibility in a space like the Sydney Writers’ Festival.”
Plant-A-Poem explored the idea that poems are like seeds, though seemingly small, they hold stories and whole worlds within them. When given time, attention and care, both poems, plants and the stories they hold can transform spaces and lives around them. As the festival heaved throughout the day, Plant-A-Poem became a place of quiet connection.
There were also moments of utter delight at the stall. One of our young poets, Navaneet, served a four-year-old girl who told him her hopes for 2026 were “unicorns and mango trees”. Navaneet smiled, we didn’t have any poems on that exact subject but he wrote a poem on the spot just for her.
The power of storytelling was evident, and our young people and visitors alike got to experience it firsthand. Poetry opened dialogue, sparked emotion and created countless meaningful encounters between people, young and old, over a shared love of stories.
Is there anywhere else we can live, other than this moment?
Reassurance exists in the brief pause between stammering rainstorms
in the sun’s crestfallen droop below the horizon
in cold star-yellow days where the sky wears a filter
in the conclusion of one moment and the next one and the next one
― Ives
Tonight I host the blackbirds
and gossip about the moon–
send whispers to the lighthouse
and wince at the tune – soon
I’ll have someone
— Kaarthik
Those twelve seconds of unfiltered emotion
as you sprint towards the library doors
only to find someone waiting,
holding them wide open for you.
Relief is a subway
— Tanya
You made it down the entire hallway
at 3:28 am for a glass of water
and realised, after all,
dark walls never haunted you
― Prisha
Growing, like an extended hand
towards the pale underbelly of
the squirming bug. Flipped over
coughing out bits of
cicada shell, not belonging
to old footsteps anymore.
— Vipula
Photos by Natasha Capstick.
