{"id":2233,"date":"2016-10-06T08:53:33","date_gmt":"2016-10-06T08:53:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nec.ac.uk\/tweet-a-poem-for-national-poetry-day\/"},"modified":"2019-07-22T17:40:22","modified_gmt":"2019-07-22T17:40:22","slug":"tweet-a-poem-for-national-poetry-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nec.ac.uk\/2016\/10\/06\/tweet-a-poem-for-national-poetry-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Tweet a poem for National Poetry Day"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo credit: miss.libertine Prose.<\/a>\u00a0via photopin<\/a>\u00a0(license)<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

In today\u2019s NEC Blog, English tutor Kathryn writes about poetry as part of our celebrations for National Poetry Day 2016.<\/em><\/p>\n

‘What’s the point in poetry?’ I hear my students groan as I hand out this year’s GCSE poetry anthology. Yet by the end of the course students most often cite poetry as being their favourite literary genre.<\/p>\n

Perhaps this is because, in the words of the American Beat poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, ‘Poetry is eternal graffiti written in the heart of everybody’. Or maybe it’s simply because poems are relatively short, making it easier to squeeze them into our busy lives (which is why Poems on the Underground has been so successful since its launch in 1986). One thing for certain is that by making words sing from the page, poetry illuminates the world with a startling intensity that helps us see beneath the surface of things often in a matter of moments.<\/p>\n

As this year’s theme for National Poetry Day is ‘messages<\/strong>‘, we thought it would be fitting to invite you to tweet your own poem or a favourite quotation from a poem in 140 characters or fewer<\/strong> to staff and students at NEC. You can interpret the theme in any way you wish.<\/p>\n

If you would like to write your own poem, here are some ideas to get you started:<\/p>\n