Philip Benjamin-Coker of Birmingham Libraries explains how Poetry On Loan
is a foundation for Poetry Book of The Month

Why Poetry On Loan?

When we first met to form the Poetry Places across the West Midlands we knew our libraries had poetry collections.  Some were good, some poor, but for the main they were indifferent.Indifferent to modern poetry.  The traditional poets were there – Tennyson, Keats, Byron, Hardy, Pope… There was some modern poetry; Eliot, of course, Hughes and Heaney, the giants of modern poetry.  But where were the newer poets ?

We became aware of a proliferation of new poetry.  We were not surprised by this because art, and poetry is an art, reflects the human condition and that condition is becoming increasingly noisy, and in particular the noise of communication – the Internet, ISDN lines, teleconferencing .  We live in a world of ever expanding diversity, with a proliferation of voices, attitudes and subject matter: poetry with its directness, sometimes even its obscurity, but certainly always with its immediacy, helps us to express ourselves and to make sense of the world.

As librarians and poetry champions we feel it is our duty to bring the medium of poetry into as many lives as possible.  To enjoy a good poem is to take a step back from information overload – to look objectively through the eyes and voice of another and to make contact with the correspondences between yourself and the poet.  Poetry helps us see and understand aspects of life: as Eliot says in Choruses From The Rock:-

Where is the life we have lost in living?
Where is wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?

That’s the philosophical bit…and now the more practical side.

Poetry On Loan is a great innovation. By bringing librarians together from across the West Midlands it has created a forum for networking, sharing ideas and communication. It has initiated performances, talks, workshops, training pack, not to mention beefing up the stock with loads of contemporary poetry, across the region.Staff poetry training is one initiative which shows how one idea leads on to another - some libraries are now developing the training pack so as to deliver poetry talks to the public, where misconceptions about poetry can be dealt with. Poetry On Loan is reaching more people and is helping to dispel poetry prejudice – poetry all too often is seen as intellectual snobbery, a closed club for the strictly esoteric.What we’ve got to do is get poetry out there and Poetry On Loan is an excellent vehicle on which to so do.

Poetry Book of The Month is new - launched January 2001 - click here

Poetry On Loan is into its third year - click here for more details - and we apologise for a lack of updates