Why do we need a poetry library?

I heard about the Poetry Library at Manchester Metropolitan University, right next to the building we lecture in, during the Covid-19 lockdown. The artistic/creative/adventurous part of me thought 'amazing, can't wait to go and see it!'; the cynic in me thought: why do we need a separate poetry library?

It so happened that I went to the Poetry Library with my colleague Jeremy Hopper the day Benjamin Zephaniah died, which prompted a discussion about this great poet with one of the librarians, and my own poetic offering, encouraged by Jeremy (see below). The quality of the poem is less important than the way the 'Four P's' of creativity – Place, Person, Process, Product – might have come together to enhance creativity.

The place, the poetry library, normalises the act of creating and reading poems. It brings together persons who are passionate about poetry. It perhaps makes those people feel that the process is within their reach. The encouragement from my colleague meant that I felt confident that writing a poem is within my reach – there seems to be  a positive relationship between creative self-efficacy and creativity. According to Teresa Amabile's componential theory of creativity, a supportive social environment can help promote a person's intrinsic motivation to create, and a Poetry Library certainly feels like a supportive environment for poetry creation.

Why is that important? Well, in my experience, British people live and breathe poetry, the musicality of language, cheeky linguistic games. I didn't grow up in Britain, and I've noticed that here people tend to invent little rhyming poems, limericks etc, at every opportunity, such as when wishing someone well in a card. Public messages are also full of little poems: 'twenty's plenty', 'pay and display'. This is not something that I noticed in Greece.

Here's another example: I was telling my British husband that we don't translate Mickey Mouse. When he learned that the Greek word for mouse is 'pontiki', he wondered 'why didn't they call it Mickey Pontiki?' That had never occurred to me before, but it did seem like a missed opportunity for a rhyme. 

But that doesn't mean all poetry is accessible to everyone. People have strong responses to it, sometimes quite aversive, perhaps particularly if it's not easy to see at first glance what the poet means. But I think poetry is a little bit like music, or an abstract painting: it can speak straight to our emotion without following all linguistic and logical rules. Therefore, being encouraged to be exposed in all kinds of poetry within the poetry library, can be enriching.

So why a poetry library specifically? It makes poetry accessible, in many ways. First, the building: easy to look into, walk into. Everyone is welcome to visit and join for free, no matter if they are studying at MMU or not. If all these books were in the main MMU Library, they would be buried among the rest, and they would only be accessible to students. It is not an austere library. It serves as a meeting place to discuss, to read, to ask, to listen to poetry, to browse, to borrow, to listen to live poetry and discussions about it. Even if you cannot make it to the poetry library, there is a great website, with lots of opportunities to get involved and be inspired.

Also, the library makes bumping into familiar or known poems possible. Take Jeremy's example of the Xbox poem (see below): I had borrowed the book, and Jeremy opened it randomly on the Xbox poem. Then he borrowed the book to show to his son. That's what I call bumping into a poem you didn't know you needed!  

All of this is potentially important from a psychological perspective. Poetry can help people develop compassion and empathy towards ourselves and others, it can bring people together, and it can be healing. As Kirsten Jack and Sam Illingworth have noted, poetry can help educators create strategies to teach health professionals how to be more empathetic with patients and break any unhelpful stereotypes; poetry can create a friendly and helpful environment for that. Poetry potentially enables the technical and non-technical parts of learning to come together. Something I saw on Sam's website 'The poetry of science' really spoke to me: 'this is sixth form poetry, not Keats or Yeats'. This reassured me that the poetry I write doesn't have to be of the highest quality. It might never be, and that's ok. Having gone through classical music education, where the narrative of high quality performance and creation was often to the fore, this is incredibly liberating.

So, for me, the Poetry Library can help bring poetry – and the psychology of it – to life in a multiplicity of ways. Why not see if a visit sparks your own creative endeavours!

Poetry for children – Jeremy Hopper, Lecturer in Psychology at Manchester Metropolitan University

One of the many things that first drew me towards the Poetry Library as I strolled pass on Oxford Road was the illustrations on the covers of children's poetry books, inviting and reassuring. I chose a children's anthology for my eight-year-old son. He responded by stating that he didn't really understand poetry. I replied that I wasn't sure that I did either, but knew a great place we could go to find out. He asked if he couldn't just play on his Xbox. I said he could do that, but I also have a poem about Xbox, which I'd borrowed from our Poetry Library. So he loved 'Xbox, Xbox – A Love Poem' by Kenn Nesbitt (inspired by mathematician Ada Lovelace and published in A Poem for every Autumn Day, edited by Allie Esiri).

He appreciates poetry a little better now I think, and so do I. The Xbox is still beyond me though.

Benj who? – by Aspa

After my visit to the Poetry Library with Jeremy, I went back home, and after chatting with my husband and watching this iPlayer programme about Benjamin Zephaniah, I wrote a poem for the occasion.

I was told of your death

in the poetry library

by my good colleague Jez.

The librarian heard,

came over and said,

yes, it is deeply absurd

nill-1,

brain v tumour

this is not just some rumour.

Aston Villa's best fan

The world's best word man

And who else did fight,

for the world's weakest's right?

how will now the unloved

be poetically hugged

with such kind wordy force?

I went home, I was told

'Benj…………………..who?'

Beh,who, wha…Right,

 I want a divorce!