With all this in mind, the opportunity to celebrate National Poetry Month this April should not go unnoticed. Poetry is for everyone! And I say this as someone who spent a great deal of time complaining about how I just ‘don’t get it’ and that ‘maybe I’m just not deep and meaningful enough to appreciate it properly.’ If there has ever been a time to dispel some myths around what can seem to be a pretty intimidating art form, April it is!
Where do I start?
If you're dipping your toe into poetry for the first time, it's easy to be overwhelmed by the sheer amount that exists. The first thing to understand is that poetry can be very simple. For a lot of people, music is their first forray into the poetic world. If you think about it, songs are often just poems put to music, so there you go, you've probably listened to thousands of poems already! Get you! If you're looking for a more traditional route into poetry, some popular starting points are poets like Wendy Cope, Mary Oliver and Robert Frost. Clear, simple, modern prose which is easy to read and packs an emotional punch. Personally, I can't stop, won't stop reccomending the best poem of all time - 'The Orange' by Wendy Cope as the perfect gateway drug into the poetry world. Once you've got a taste of some mainstream poets, start exploring! The world is absolute packed with brilliant, talented poets just waiting for you to discover them. A great way to start is by finding poetry anthologies. Often categoriesd by theme, this is an easy way to narrow down the type of poetry you're interested in. If the serious nature of a lot of popular poetry doesn't do it for you, find a comedic collection (Wendy Cope has a fair few of these herself), tailor it to your own interests! Once you've got a grasp of the basics you can start experimenting with different styles, themes and poets. This is when it gets really interesting...
So, you've got the poetry bug?
If you've followed all the sage advice above, I can only assume that you are now obsessed. So, how to nurture your new personality trait? Luckily for you we live in the centre of a thriving literary community here in the North East and there are many great organisations to get involved with!
Starting off strong with 'Out of Your Head!' (OOYH), a monthly poetry night based at The Cumberland Arms which hosts an open mic, featured writers and a monthly call-out for poems submitted by local artists.
Open Platform by 'Yellow Lines' is another great local organisation, hosting poetry events and regular open mics on and around the metro lines.
Even closer to home we have the popular 'Poetry in the North', a relaxed Newcastle-based poetry meet up which takes place in various venues around the city.
More information about all these events can be found on their respective social medias and I would very much recommend checking them all out! On a slightly larger scale, the annual Newcastle Poetry Festival is set to return in May, so watch this space!
To conclude, poetry is for everyone. It's not the elitist art form people once believed it to be, it's a beautiful form of connection and conversation which, if you really think about it, ultimately reminds us of the one thing that connects us all - being human, and wanting to talk about it.
