The National Centre for Writing is delighted to support Norwich City Council’s Living Wage Week programme and the national Living Wage Campaign by commissioning poems from local writers Hannah Levene and Ryan Taaffe-Fowle.

Hannah is a writer and poet living and working in Norwich. She is currently undertaking a PhD in Creative Writing at Roehampton University and is a co-editor at Pigs poetry zine. You can read her poem ‘Basket of goods’ below.

Ryan Taaffe-Fowle is one of our 2020 Young Norfolk Laureates. For 12 months (since July) Ryan and his fellow laureates will work as a collective, receiving creative and professional development opportunities from NCW and working towards an original collaboration to be performed next year.

We are your living wage workers.

Also known as your worked to the bone factory faeces.
Surely you remember us blokes who pack your boxes of card onto pallets worth more each, than we earn in a week.

You might know us as the late-night warehouse walkers,
or the supermarket shelf stackers
working 9 till 9 just to feed our daughters
we are struggling.

Hand me down clothes and food bank withdrawals
The living wage means we can cover our bills, this evening.

Surely you remember our mothers,
who woke before the sun to pack our lunches
then go work so hard that they lose their hair
and don’t get paid the very bare
minimum.

Hand me down clothes and food bank withdrawals
The living wage means we can cover our bills, this evening.