National Poetry Day Turns 25 Today

National Poetry Day celebrates its 25th anniversary on 3rd October with a campaign themed around ‘truth’. Each year there is a different theme inspiring thousands of events and workshops across the UK. They are taking place everywhere, from schools and libraries to bookshops and hospitals, even on buses and boats – all celebrating poetry’s power to bring people together.

If you’re planning poetry in your school, be it reading, writing or performing, you can check out a range of free resources that have been prepared by Forward Arts Foundation, the charity which co-ordinates National Poetry Day. The resources can be found here: https://nationalpoetryday.co.uk/education/free-education-resource-downloads/

Susannah Herbert of Forward Arts Foundation, has said this theme was selected “because these days there’s a great hunger for truth, in both public and personal lives – and a great scepticism, too”. She continues: “Big data, polls and statistics play on the dangerous assumption that truth is measurable, that there’s no room for doubt. And so when data proves to be wrong or wrongly used, there’s a crisis.”

The Forward Arts Foundation have also released an anthology to coincide with the celebrations, Tell Me The Truth About Life (hit the link below to see). The anthology celebrates poetry’s power to tap into the truths that matter. Curated and introduced by BBC presenter Cerys Matthews, this collection draws on the wisdom of the nation: featuring poems selected for their insight into truth by a broad spectrum of Britain’s most passionate poetry lovers, from astronaut Helen Sharman, to other household names such as Chris Riddell, Carol Ann Duffy, Dolly Alderton and Frank Skinner.

https://nationalpoetryday.co.uk/poems/tell-me-the-truth-about-life-a-national-poetry-day-anthology/