Those of you who are attentive watchers of Poet in the City will know that the charity was involved last year in Trees in the City, an exciting collaboration with Lloyd’s of London, the insurance market. This collaboration involved, amongst other things, the commissioning of new poetry about climate change written by three distinguished contemporary poets: Patience Agbabi, Matthew Hollis and John Burnside.
I can honestly say that nothing has given me greater satisfaction over the last year than to be in a position to commission new poetry, and add new and important work to the cultural life of the nation. The poets rose to the challenge magnificently, producing suites of poems of an exceptional range and quality. This poetry rapidly acquired a life of its own, being made into podcasts for the Lloyd’s website, streamed by the Times Online, reproduced in ‘Earth Shattering’ a Bloodaxe anthology of climate change poems, and even translated into Chinese!
The collaboration with Lloyd’s was such a success that Poet in the City has now been asked to commission more new poetry, this time about terrorism and conflict, another of the most important issues of our time. The charity will shortly be instructing three contemporary poets to create suites of new work on this subject, a great opportunity for poets to influence and reflect upon the so-called ‘War on Terror’ and the great social and political changes that have come in its wake.
Poetry is exactly the right medium in which to address these vexing and terrifying symptoms of our time. As Walt Whitman puts it ‘The poet judges not as a judge judges but as the sun falling around a helpless thing’. Poetry is not dogmatic or simplistic but is able to capture feelings of ambivalence, despair, and even hope for the future. It is able to take the temperature of the age and assess its state of health and well-being, and to raise awareness of the nature of other realities, even of the horrifying ‘collateral damage’ of war, or of violent actions and philosophies which may be repugnant to decent people everywhere.
This sort of commission is what Poet in the City exists to encourage. As readers of my blog will know I have long been an advocate of taking poetry to new audiences, and using it to address all of the most important and controversial issues of our time. It is not often that one gets to speak about terrorism and the city in one breath outside of the pages of newspapers or police reports. But poetry has all of the tools it needs to bring the reality of terrorism into the heart of the City in the form of words, emotions and ideas, which will move and uplift us, and also make us think.
Many thanks to Lloyd’s for continuing to support the creation of exciting and ground-breaking poetry through Poet in the City!