It’s National Poetry Day on Thursday, which means there will be events across Britain celebrating the power of the written word.
And, thanks to a local poet, scribes everywhere have been given the chance to take part.
The event has been going since 1994 and, back in 2003, Roger McGough was invited by the Poetry Society to run an event asking people to submit lines on a chosen theme.
He then selected some of the best to make a patchwork poem, or cento.
Inspired by Roger McGough’s work, local poet Andy Jackson, who lives in north-east Fife and works as a librarian at the University of Dundee, decided to put together one of his own via his blog page North Carr Light, which documents literary goings on in the area.
Each National Poetry Day has a new theme, and 2010’s is “home”. Last month, Andy began asking people to send in original poetry on this theme, for instance, buildings, places of birth, the people who mean “home”, the tastes or smells of home and journeys to or from home.
There were over 40 contributors ranging from established Scottish writers such as Sheila Templeton and Eleanor Livingstone, to a group of children from a school in Aberdeen and members of an adult learning centre on the West Coast.
Andy has now put individual lines together ready for publishing on his blog tomorrow.
He said, “The idea of the cento poem is quite an old one. In previous days, poets would take one line from well-established and well-known poems and construct a new poem out of it.
“Unlike Roger McGough, I wasn’t invited to do this, but I thought it was something people who weren’t able to attend a National Poetry Day event could still do.”Literary sceneAndy, who is originally from Manchester, said it was apt the patchwork poem should have originated in Dundee, as it’s a city with a burgeoning literary scene. He had originally intended the poem to be only Scottish, but the idea picked up pace and word spread south of the border
“I decided that I wouldn’t turn anybody away, but if it had a Scottish background to it then, that would help in the overall poem.
“We want to create something reasonably artistic and colourful so people can print it out and hang it up somewhere and I sourced images on website Flickr by Australian photographer Terri Turner, who creates tartan effects from photos of the natural world. She allowed me to use the images free of charge.”
Andy went on to say a real life giant patchwork poetry was created last year by the Poetry Society with the help of around 1000 volunteer knitters from all over the world to celebrate the organisation’s centenary year. The 12m square patchwork is going to be travelling to St Andrews for the 2011 StAnza festival.
“There is scope for our poem to be developed into something more ‘permanent’, but I suppose we might just have to rely upon somebody picking it up. It may be that we get some interest once it has been printed.”EventsNational Poetry Day is a campaign for all poets, poetry fans and poetry organisations to enjoy and take part in. Since 1994, it has engaged millions of people with poetry through a range of live events and web-based activities for people young and old throughout the country.
On Thursday morning, the Scottish Poetry Library will take to the streets with the Edinburgh City Libraries mobile van to distribute postcards and good poetry cheer to the people of Edinburgh.
Then, at 3pm, the SPL will throw open the doors to its residence in Crichton’s Close, Canongate, for an old fashioned tea party during which people can share their favourite verses.
Well known Fife poet William Hershaw will host an evening of poems and the stories that inspired them at 7.30pm in Duloch Library as part of Celebrating Fife 2010 and the local heroes project.
Meanwhile, at the same time, there will be an event at West Mearns Parish Church led by Rev Catherine Hepburn and poet Peter Morriss. Members of the audience are encouraged to bring along something to read aloud.
Finally, on Friday evening at the Links Hotel in Montrose, poet Tim Turnbull and three other writers from Calder Wood Press will host an event with Rachel Fox accompanied by music from Dundee choir Loadsaweeminsingin.
At the beginning of this week, Roger McGough got things rolling by penning two poems in response to the tube strike in London, proving there really is a place for poetry, no matter what the occasion.