OLIVIA DODD

“Everybody just wants to be listened to. Everybody deserves to be listened to.”  

Olivia blends her love of words with storytelling to create an immersive form of poetry – connecting with strangers, translating their feelings into poems on the spot. In this conversation we delve into her insights on connection, the human desire to be heard and how her poetic encounters have enriched her own life.

What inspired you to start writing poetry, and how has your inspiration led you to this journey on social media?  

There are a lot of crossovers with my style of poetry and acting, because it’s this kind of performance art. Sitting in a space and allowing somebody to come up to you and speak openly, then write for them on the spot and read the poem to them, requires a performative element, and acting training has allowed me to be more comfortable in those settings.  

I think my inspiration has grown from my love of words and hearing other people’s stories. Wanting to connect with people as well, we’re in this huge city, in London it becomes hard to just have a conversation with somebody. So, I sort of fell into it after discovering a woman, LAMARKS, in New York City who was writing poems for people on a typewriter and I knew it was something I needed to do. I emailed her, showed her some of my poems and said I want to learn how to do this. From that she took me under her wing.She’s now founded a creative agency called Ars Poetica, who I now work with and I’m the lead poet for all their events in the UK. 

What have you discovered about people through these encounters with strangers? 

I think the overall thing is that everybody just wants to be listened to. Everybody deserves to be listened to. It’s so rare that we have these situations where somebody asks  “how are you?”, “what are you actually thinking about?”. Not very many people have the space to do that. Somehow poetry gives them permission to talk about deeper feelings and bigger emotions. It’s really beautiful to see people clock it - sometimes they won’t realise they really needed to say something, and you can see it in their face, how beneficial it can be.

In what ways has listening to and writing about other people's stories enriched your own life? 

It definitely makes me feel less alone. For instance, chatting with other girls in their 20s about similar stuff, I end up recognizing a feeling I felt a year or two ago, , which is really lovely. Sometimes I'll be having a down day, and I will still go and sit in the park anyway and I always come back feeling better. There’s something about feeding off people’s energy and the different things that they bring to the table that inspires me.  

A lot of people may speak about similar topics, like feeling lost or uncertain about the future, but it’s interesting to see how everybody has their own unique and specific take on it or how they’re experiencing it. It makes you feel less alone while also recognising there are so many different perspectives to this one feeling.  

When did you decide to start posting these interactions on social media? 

It was an interesting transition. After working with Ars Poetica I started doing events with them here, so I never started at the park. I would be invited to perform at events; it was a nice way to start, it’s almost like you don’t feel bad that you’re there, right? Someone’s paying you to be there. Whereas going out and sitting in the park was a lot more daunting because you are taking up public space and just deciding there’s going to be poems here!  

But once I started it was so amazing and rewarding. I had been posting ‘come write poems with me’ vlogs, but I wasn’t sharing any interactions. At first I felt a bit invasive, it’s a very personal moment to have. Do I want to be recording it? But I knew more people could benefit from it and it’s a special  way to share this art form.  

It definitely is another way for people to enjoy, experience and interact with your work. 

Exactly, so I just bit the bullet one day, set up the camera and I do ask people if they are  comfortable with me sharing this on social media. Some people understandably aren’t but surprisingly more people than you think are like yeah, of course it’s fine! Then when I do post, so many people comment with similar stories or feelings.he person in the video will usually reach out to me to be like oh my god it’s been so nice hearing people say they feel the same way!   

What do you hope your readers/audience online take away from your writing? What can understanding others teach us as individuals?  

I want to remind people of the importance of just finding moments in your day to be really present and present with other people in your life as well. I think we underestimate the power of it. Sometimes people ask me, ‘how do you write this immediately with all these people staring at you?’ It’s literally just because I have to be 100% in the moment. Not second guess or overthink it.   

Follow Olivia on -  

Substack: @oliviapoetess

Instagram: @olivia.poetess 

TikTok: @olivia.poetess