Ways to celebrate National Poetry Day (that’s today!)
Hey guys — it’s National Poetry Day in the UK today! According to the official website, “Britain is a poetry nation,” so we should all be taking the time to mark the occasion somehow before the end of the day. But how? True, organisations all over the country have events organised and stuff going on — the Scottish Poetry Library have a particularly lovely line-up — but it is a weekday after all. Not all of us can take the time to spend a day attending poetry readings or going on a poetic treasure hunt… but there are ways to make National Poetry Day particularly poetic without stopping your world to do it.
1. Pass on a poem.
This is easy peasy, and it’s not only a good way of marking National Poetry Day, but a good way of keeping poetry on the map for the other 364 days of the year. “Did you know it’s National Poetry Day today?” is a great ice-breaker — which means that today’s the perfect day for enlisting new readers. You could send a poem round your office in a group email, send someone you love a card with a poem inside, or take the guerilla approach and fling a printed-out or torn-out poem at an unsuspecting stranger in the street. Whatever you do, accompany it with a “Happy Poetry Day!” Yes, people may think you’re nuts… but they may also go out and buy a poetry collection tomorrow. You never know!
2. Give the gift of poetry.
I’d really like to start a trend where National Poetry Day is like Christmas, only all the presents are poetry books. POETMAS, ANYONE? OK, maybe it’s just me. But this National Poetry Day you should consider giving a poetry book to someone, even (or perhaps especially) if it’s just yourself. Why? Well, poetry books bought = happy poets. And everyone likes a present, poetry or not. If you’re a poet yourself, you might just find a new influence… or if you’re just a reader, you might find a brand new favourite poet.
3. Support a small press.
You should all know by now why this is a good thing to do — small presses are the plankton that nourish and support the many-tentacled monster that is poetry. And for all that buying Seamus Heaney’s Collected might be one way of marking National Poetry Day, personally I’d be inclined to nudge you towards something a bit less obvious. It might be a bit more work, but see if you can find a small press you’d like to support — then buy one of their titles, donate a few pennies, or recommend them to a poetry-loving friend. Trust me, Your Chosen Small Press will be far more appreciative of your support than Faber & Faber!
4. Bookcross a poetry collection.
Bookcrossing is a really cool idea, so if you’ve got a stack of poetry collections lying around gathering dust, put them to good use by passing them on. You just go to the website and sign up, and then strategically drop your chosen book and wait to find out where it goes! (NB: I particularly like the fact that Bookcrossers have started a trend for marginalia — communicating with each other by leaving little notes inside the books they ‘cross.’ Why not mark the occasion by scrawling a National Poetry Day note in the margins?)
5. Host an impromtu poetry reading.
I know you have only a matter of hours before National Poetry Day 2009 gears down again, but seriously — how hard can it be? Get on the phone to your friends, tidy up the living room a bit and coerce everyone into coming over for a night of literary mayhem. You could read your own poems, compose poems on the spot, pick poems by other people that you love and share them around, or turn the whole thing into a bit of a workshop to polish up your works. National Poetry Day comes only once a year, after all!
Any other ideas? Comments box below!!
(Photo by National Poetry day 2009 poster, originally uploaded by Melissa Castrillon)
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Tags: advice for young writers, national poetry day, publishing, resources for young writers, young poets