A Poem for Your Club
A Poem for Your Club gave Luton Town supporters, young people, schools and community groups a chance to turn football feeling into poetry. Football has always had its own poetry: chants carried through streets, names sung from terraces, memories passed between generations, and the collective breath of a crowd willing a team forward.
I was born, raised and made in Luton, so becoming Luton Town FC’s poet-in-residence for this project felt deeply personal. It brought together two of the great languages of belonging: football and poetry.
Both make room for emotion. Both turn private feeling into a collective sound. Both can say: this is who we are, this is where we come from, and this is what we carry together.
A Poem for Your Club: more than a poet’s voice
This was never about arriving with a finished poem and asking people to listen. It was about listening first.
Across workshops with Luton Town FC Community Trust, I invited participants to remember, imagine, chant, write, perform and contribute. The final poem was shaped by voices from across the Luton Town community.
There were children exploring literacy through football; older supporters carrying decades of match-day memories; adults with disabilities bringing their own rhythm, humour and passion; schools imagining the future; and fans sharing the moments that made them proud to be Hatters.
Words already live here
Football is already full of language: the chant, the nickname, the story of the match, the memory of a goal, the walk to the ground, the argument, the hope and the roar.
A Poem for Your Club recognised that many young people and families may find their way into writing through a space they already care about.
When a football club becomes a place for poetry, as it did through A Poem for Your Club, writing does not feel separate from life. It becomes another way to join in.
Football and sports are among the last spaces where people can express their emotions freely and without judgment. When poetry joins that openness, it can create connection, unity and a deeper sense of togetherness.
Naz Knight · Luton Town FC Poet-in-ResidenceA chorus of experiences
The workshops were designed around the people who took part, rather than expecting everyone to speak or write in the same way.
- Hatters Hub members shared memories and stories across generations
- Ability Counts participants explored feelings, rhythm and self-expression
- Primary-school pupils used imagination, football words and playful poetry
- Secondary-school pupils explored aspiration, identity and belonging
- Fans gathered to share the stories that connect them to the club
From memory to rhythm
In one workshop, a memory could become a line. In another, a word wall of football emotions could become a verse. Elsewhere, the rhythm of clapping, movement or a crowd chant could become the structure of a stanza.
This is how I often work through Words Chose Me: listening for what is already present in people’s language, body, memory and imagination—then helping it take shape.
A poem does not always begin with an idea. Sometimes it begins with a sound. A phrase. A scarf raised high. A memory of walking towards Kenilworth Road.
Making space for young voices
A Poem for Your Club gave young people and community participants the chance to see football as a place for creativity, literacy, confidence and self-expression. The workshops made room for ideas to be tried, spoken aloud, changed, celebrated and woven into the collective poem.
A Poem for Your Club in voice and performance
A Poem for Your Club was created to move between page, workshop, stadium and community. These recordings hold some of the sound, rhythm and collective energy of the project.
Listen to A Hatters Call
Listen to A Poem for Your Club, the Luton Town community, poetry, literacy and the power of collective voice.
Listen on BBC Sounds
Listen to the BBC Sounds feature exploring A Poem for Your Club, the poem and the community voices behind it.
A Poem for Your Club: Luton Town’s collective voice
The final A Poem for Your Club anthem was created from community stories, workshop contributions, football language, local memory and the energy of Luton Town supporters. It was written to work both as a poem on the page and as a call-and-response chant carried on match day.
I’m Proud to Be a Hatter
ChorusI’m proud to be a Hatter, feeling strong and proud,
Come on, you Hatters, lift your voices loud!
I’m proud to be a Hatter, in orange, blue, and white,
They see us as the underdogs, but we are ready for the fight!
VerseIn a town where both dreams and planes take flight,
We harness our passion, our hearts burning bright.
Through streets of our Luton, with scarves held high,
Our footsteps like drumbeats, our songs touch the sky.
With belief as our compass, we are charting our course,
Fuelling our journey with unstoppable force.
We stand and cheer, and we’ll shake the ground,
As we rally together, our spirits unbound.
From the famous Eric Morecambe, that star on our screens,
To the orange sunrise, fulfilling our dreams.
Past terraced red bricks where the town sings loud,
We push toward the ground, proud in the crowd.
Through the highs and the lows, we stand side by side,
Chasing glory, powered by pride.
At the turnstiles we gather, the Hatters unite,
Kenilworth calling, its lamps burning bright.
ChorusI’m proud to be a Hatter, feeling strong and proud,
Come on, you Hatters, lift your voices loud!
I’m proud to be a Hatter, in orange, white, and blue,
They see us as the underdogs, but we show what we can do!
VerseAs the whistle blows, hear the roar of the crowd,
We’re your 12th Man, with our heads held proud.
The stadium opens, the bowl comes alive,
Where echoes of history and passion survive.
We wear our colours, bright as the sun,
With the heart of a Hatter, we’re second to none!
From terrace to terrace, our anthem takes flight,
Together we thunder, together we fight.
Respect for the struggle, sharing the grind,
In the pursuit of our goals, our dreams are aligned.
Focused on triumph, we chase what is ours,
Under these floodlights, we reach for the stars.
Luton Town shines, and our dreams take a stand,
With passion and pride, the Hatters’ together band.
This is our temple, where legends are told,
In orange and blue, our fire takes hold.
ChorusI’m proud to be a Hatter, hear the thunder roar,
With passion unbroken, we will give them more!
I’m proud to be a Hatter, our colours burning bright,
With hearts united, and victory in sight!
VerseFrom humble roots, this club has grown,
From the streets of the Town we’ve made our own.
Through every setback, we rose again,
The spirit of Luton will never bend.
Luton Town, our voice, our song,
At Kenilworth Road where we all belong.
From past to present, the fire burns clear,
Each win is sweeter, each roar sincere.
Final chantI’m proud to be a Hatter, let the rafters shake,
For the spirit of Luton, no rival can break!
I’m proud to be a Hatter, forever we’ll stand,
With one voice united, the pride of this land!
I’m proud to be a Hatter, hear our story told,
The Town and its people, with hearts of gold.
I’m proud to be a Hatter, raise your scarves on high,
For Luton forever, we’ll reach for the sky!
Poetry is already in motion
This project links directly to the questions I explore across Words Chose Me: how sound, rhythm, repetition, feeling and language move through us.
A chant is a kind of communal poem. It has breath, repetition, response, cadence and emotion. It travels through the body and across a crowd. It turns hundreds or thousands of separate voices into one sound.
Writing a football poem therefore meant listening not only to words, but to beat, pace and call-and-response. The finished piece needed to live on the page, but it also needed to be able to rise into the air.
Where belief becomes language
Luton Town’s story carries the spirit of the underdog: perseverance, resilience, hard work and the refusal to disappear when the odds feel against you.
That feeling appeared again and again in the work. The high and the low. The setback and the comeback. The pride of a town that knows its own history and keeps moving forward.
“We see ourselves as the underdogs, but we are ready for the fight.”
This is not only football language. It is community language. It is the language of people who keep believing.
The town is in the poem
The poem needed to sound and feel like Luton. Not a generic football anthem, but something grounded in red-brick terraces, changing skies, walking routes, local landmarks, family memories and the way a crowd moves towards the ground.
Kenilworth Road is not just a stadium. It is a meeting place, a memory bank, a landmark of hope and heartbreak, a place where people find each other again through colour, sound and shared devotion.
When the poem found its audience
The work came full circle when the collective poem moved from workshops and draft lines into the wider public life of the club.
That is the moment I love: when a line written by a child, a supporter, an older community member or a workshop participant becomes part of something larger. A poem becomes a record of belonging, a public declaration and a shared song.
It is proof that poetry belongs everywhere people gather, care, remember, argue, celebrate and dream.
From workshop to launch
These images hold part of the journey: the conversations, contributions, performances and community pride that made the poem possible.
One town. Many voices. One poem.
A Poem for Your Club reminded me why I do this work. Poetry is not an extra. It is not only for the page, the classroom or the literary stage. It belongs in football grounds, community rooms, schools, chants, memories and the shared life of a town.
Poetry can live in a football chant. It can live in a supporter’s memory. It can live in a child’s first brave line. It can live in the rhythm of a crowd, in the pride of a scarf, in the long walk home after the final whistle.
Through poetry, people can hear themselves differently. They can recognise that their story, their language and their love for a place belong in the record.
I’m proud to be a Hatter.
Lift your voices loud.
This is our town. This is our story. This is our song.
Reflection question: What place, team, street, family or community has given you a language of belonging—and what poem, chant or line might you write for it?
Explore A Poem for Your Club
Follow the project through official pages, press coverage and performances.