National Poetry Day at the Poetry Garden

St Andrews Square
Edinburgh
8.30am - 10am ; 12.30pm - 2pm ; 5pm - 6pm

If you go down to the woods today – or at least St Andrew’s Square Gardens in Edinburgh – you’re in for a pleasant surprise. To mark National Poetry Day 2008, the Scottish Poetry Library has recruited a ‘Poetry Army’ to patrol the gardens handing out specially commissioned poems by Scottish writers.

BooksFromScotland.com went down at the bright and early hour of 8.30 to see the volunteers in action, passing out the poems to a receptive stream of people on their way to the office. We spoke to SPL Reader in Residence Ryan Van Winkle, who told us that most of the passers-by he’s encountered so far have been pleasingly happy to take a poem – some doing a double-take when they realise they are not being sold anything! Ryan’s mission is to encourage people to see that poetry can be as accessible as any other art form; “People want to like poetry but it can be hard to find a way in”.

There are many events happening all over Scotland today to celebrate NPD; the free postcards in the garden are just one of the ways that Ryan and the SPL hope to inspire us to find a new way of looking at poetry.

The Poetry Army will be out in force today between 12.30 and 2pm, and 5 and 6pm. If you’re in the area, do pay them a visit and pick up your free poetry postcards (look out for the bright green bags!). If not, the SPL will be happy to send you this year’s set – see their website for details. You can also Download the postcards here if you can't make it today.