Poets must be proactive in placing themselves visibly at the centre of temporal concerns, and devising ways to influence the national cultural landscape and give poetry a strong role in our everyday lives. Subsidy must provide public platforms – be that the National Theatre or some separate, dedicated venue, with a linked social media presence – to allow those interpretations to be heard. Keats may have said that “my imagination is a monastery and I am its monk”, but it’s time for poetry to come out and play.
- Molly Flatt on the Guardian Books Blog: “Poetry needs to move out of the garrett for good”
I do love how British arts writers get to use the word “subsidy” in conjunction with imperative verbs, like “must.”
