Happy National Poetry Day and the power of poems
It’s National Poetry Day here in the UK and if anyone out there has ever been tempted to bemoan the fact that people aren’t interested in poety anymore, here is evidence in abundance that poetry and poems are still very much alive and kicking in the public psyche.
It’s not just that we reach for a poem in times of need - weddings, funerals and other rituals. It also seems that lots of us are writing poetry. Lots and lots of it.
Today my Twittering and Facebooking has been filled with news of poetic events all over the country. People are linking to their favourite poems or nominating their poetry heroes.
There’s a lot of enthusiasm for poetry out there.
Last night, we had the announcement of the biggest poetry prize in Britain, the Forward Prize. Within seconds, the Tweets from the prize-giving were flowing. Poetry, it seems, is news.
I love the fact that people all over the country are composing Twitter haikus, quoting half-remembered verses of Walter de la Mare, talking about their favourite T S Eliot and debating whether Bob Dylan’s lyrics can really be called poems.
It seems that everyone knows what a poem is. We recognise it. It recognises us. There’s just something about a poem that speaks us, or speaks for us.
Don Paterson, winner of last night’s Forward, once called a poem ‘a little machine for remembering itself.’
Yes, it’s that. And it’s also so much more than that.
Happy National Poetry Day!
