Poetry / Sukina Noor
Sukina Noor’s poetic journey: love, vulnerability and honesty
The first time Sukina Noor wrote a poem was after a breakup. She didn’t have a way to reach her ex-boyfriend, so she decided to write letters to him instead.
“I had heightened emotions and I think a lot of poets usually begin writing from that kind of feeling,” Sukina said on a recent afternoon.
“Love, injustice in the world, loss and grief really cause an individual to pick up the pen.”
In her late teens, Sukina moved to London and truly realised her love for poetry through her first encounters with spoken word.
She fell in love with its dynamism, aliveness and embodiment: “Culturally, I could see much more of a resonance with spoken word than Shakespeare or what we had to study in school.”
At university, she’d spend her days attending poetry lectures that didn’t move her at all. But by night, she’d be attending spoken word nights where she found different platforms and opportunities as an activist and a poet.
Sukina explained: “Within the English landscape, poetry is still associated with high culture and literature. It’s become inaccessible. But I don’t believe it was always that way. Think about nursery rhymes or folk songs– that was full of poetry for the people.”
Sukina has delivered workshops in collaboration with many organisations, including Bristol Drugs Project, 1625 Independent People and Arnolfini – photo: Bristol Beacon
Her poetry took on a new voice when she began to walk a Sufi path and started her work as a manager for the Sufi Centre.
“I think my poetry became a bit more introspective, definitely inspired by the spirit of Rumi,” Sukina said.
Through her academic research, she has become deeply connected with the poetry of the Sufi Mystics, which were often recited and sung for communal enjoyment.
“One of my teachers told me that the poetry of the Mystics allows the illiterate to be eloquent, because if you know the lines of poetry, you too can participate in the works.
“That’s why I get so excited about the opportunity to do workshops for different groups: elderly, young people, people from marginalised and refugee backgrounds.”
A turning point for Sukina as a facilitator was at a retreat with the Sufi Centre in Turkey, just opposite the burial place of Rumi.
When beginning one of her poetry workshops on divine love, she asked participants to talk about their love for the mundane. A pet or favourite mug, for example.
For one man, this reminded him of his wife who he had just separated from, along with his son. Suddenly, he was crying.
He said something that Sukina said would never leave her: “Now you’ve opened us up, what are we supposed to do?”
Through this experience, she realised the extent to which poetry workshops can reveal people’s vulnerabilities, along with her responsibility as a facilitator to know how far to go with people and how to bring them back together.
That’s when she returned to Bristol to pursue her Masters degree in Creative Writing for Therapeutic Purposes at the Bristol branch of the Metanoia Institute.
“That became a big thing for me, asking, from where do we write poems? Where do we dip our ink? Is it solely intellect and wit? Is it from the heart? Is it in the spirit?”
Sukina Noor performing at Lyra Fest 2025 – photo by: Sam Cavender
Despite being an international performer for over 20 years, Sukina said that before becoming Bristol’s official city poet in 2024, she’d never really written as a local in any place she’d been.
Sukina said: “The poem that I submitted to become the Bristol city poet was really about this idea that I travelled the world trying to find home but actually, this is my home.”
Sukina expressed her sense of empowerment and gratitude to be the first Muslim Bristol city poet, and the first Caribbean woman.
“For a lot of my life I felt that I’m too niche for one group,” she told Bristol24/7.
“I always thought that I’d be too different or even a bit too much. But in this role, I feel really healed as all of my parts have come together. All of these parts of me are doorways for others to engage with not just me, but poetry in general.”
When talking about the impact of her workshops, Sukina said: “I really feel the presence of God, particularly with marginalised communities because there’s no pretensions or performativity as there sometimes are in religious spaces.”
Now nearing the end of her two-year city poet role, Sukina is keen on legacy projects that can continue on after the end of her stint which sees her follow in the footsteps of Miles Chambers, Vanessa Kisuule, Caleb Parkin and Cat Lyons.
For Bristol’s next generation of young poets, she shared this advice:
- Journal: “In the process of journalling, you’re writing regularly and getting into some kind of flow.”
- “Engage with live poetry, whether that’s an open mic or slam night. Get used to what poetry sounds like and feels like in your body.”
- Read poetry, but not just any poetry: “Find poets that resonate with you and your experience.”
- Once a week, take a line from another poem to inspire your own.
- “Try to find your voice. Performance artists at the beginning of their journey can often end up imitating.”
Main photo: Sam Cavender
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