Angie Woolfall – words as refuge, resilience, and reclamation
Angie Woolfall — known to some as “Ange (Woolf)” — arrives in the 52 for 26 Poetry Project carrying the weight and brightness of a life lived on her own terms. A Liverpool native, Angie once studied philosophy at Sandown College, where the question “why” found its lifelong home.
Words have always been her havens and weapons — not just on the page, but in the world beyond it. Her writing has appeared in three separate Liverpool anthologies, echoed from a pigeon’s beak in a public art show, shown at a gallery in Stirling, printed in an artist’s calendar, and even featured in the newsletter of Violette Records’ Science & Magic. That peripatetic journey of ink and intent speaks to a restless spirit unfettered by boundaries.
Wild Twin, the poem Angie brings to this year’s line-up, springs from a moment of personal reckoning. Having received a book from an old friend at a time of despair, she “breathed deeply, unclenched [her] hands and shook the grief and anxiety from [her]self.” Out of that exhale came poetry — raw, unfiltered, necessary. The poem tells a tale of survival and authenticity: a journey from darkness into light, a reclaiming of voice and self when lost seemed the only company. It frightens doubt, embraces vulnerability, and extends a hand to anyone ready to follow.
In a city proud of its grit and polished records alike, Angie Woolfall’s Wild Twin adds a pulse of something quieter, but no less urgent. It doesn’t trade on spectacle or declamation — instead, it invites empathy, reflection, and the possibility of repair. That quiet radicalism — the kind that comes from honesty — is at the heart of what makes Liverpool’s poetry scene hum under the radar.
Wild Twin doesn’t just speak for one person in a private moment: it shakes loose universals. Loss and recovery. Grief and renewal. Silence and the reclaiming of a voice that needed to be heard.
The Wild Twin
Picture yourself in a life you’ve not led
Collisions not made
Paths never trod
Walked instead by another
Your wild twin
The banished one
Who galloped through forests
Bareback and howling
Drunk on wildflowers
Lungs filled with green
Mudded soles
Washed clean by streams
Dried by the breeze
Open your window
Take her hand
Follow her back
To the road forgotten
Meet yourself there
Whole and unbroken
Know all at once
All paths lead to her
And love her
For she has always loved you.
