I’ve been thinking all week about whether I wanted to write a post or not about the latest upheaval among the members of the UK’s Poetry Society. I purposely try to steer clear of things political on my blog because my readers are from all over the globe, they span lots of genres if they’re writers at all, and yes — because I tend to be rather non-confrontational. I’m not a great believer in facts, to be honest, and so I’m always afraid to voice an opinion too stridently just in case there is some other element I’m not aware of.
But it’s hard to be too timid on this one. Basically, the leadership of the Poetry Society has resigned quite suddenly and in a bit of a huff. But although there are all sorts of rumours out there about the whys and wherefores, the Society itself has said nothing to its membership and was seemingly intending to just go about its business (whatever that is), hiring new staff, adding new Trustees, without a word or comment to those of us who have paid our dues year in, year out. Over ten percent of the membership has now signed a petition asking for an Extraordinary Meeting (legally speaking), not to complain or put forward an agenda, but just to ask “what the hell is going on?” I signed the petition, too.
Many poet bloggers have written about this, but I’d like to point you in the direction of this excellent post by Jackie Wills. She seems to be speaking my mind for me. And if you want to sign the petition yourself or otherwise get involved, you can email Kate Clanchy at gmail dot com, who is spearheading the whole thing. Ahh, poets. You can’t live with ’em, you can’t live without ’em.
PS I know the image of the Poetry Society logo has come out a bit fuzzy up above, but somehow that feels appropriate….
We do need to know what’s going on or rumours abound and people get blamed when maybe there’s some reason we would never guess at.
The Poetry Society did receive a rise in funding and this would be based on a proposal for how they intend to work. There will be expectations from the Arts Council to mee that. So we’d need to see what that proposal was and what the conditions are.
I joined again after a year so busy that I let all my memberships lapse. It’s lovely to be back in the poetry organisations. I’ve been a member of the Poetry Society since I was a schoolgirl so it has been part of my life since I can remember and I’d always be in it and wanting to be a part of trying to resolve and improve.
Along with the Poetry Library, the Poetry Society is incredibly supportive. We use their Poetry Cafe in Covent Garden for launches and open mics and have two events booked up. It feels so special and they treat publishers according to budget – we’d have to pay hundreds of pounds for a little bookshop in central London but have the Poetry Cafe at an affordable rate.
Hope to see you there next Saturday 9th July from 7pm when audience can read at open mic – and it does feel special to do that at the Poetry Society. Joy Howard will be launching her book and Ann Alexander will also be reading.
I can’t say I agree with Jackie Wills. I also went to the old Poetry Society building, and I certainly remember the extraordinary days of experimental poetry in Poetry Review. And I know the other websites she’s talking about.
I loved my days in the old Poetry Society building too. But it’s much easier for more people to get to Covent Garden and I wouldn’t be able to get further than that now – it’s more accessible and for many people that’s a necessity. A central London location gives that important accessibility.
I also remember it was much harder as a young female teenage poet in those ‘glory days’. I could go to the events Jackie mentions, but it was incredibly hard to find out how to participate. It’s not like that now. The door is wide open to poets now to come and take part in events, and even to ask to give an event. I think it’s much better for poets now, and the Poetry Society’s Poetry Cafe is a big part of that.
The website works alongside other websites. The Poetry Archive is growing, and the Poetry Society also works with Poetry International – I’ve worked with them myself. It’s a network. It doesn’t all have to be on one website, but works better if they’re all working together like this.
The website also lists all our new books, and all poets can ask to have their profile on there. I think it’s so accessible and helpful. As a new publisher setting up the Poetry Society and the Poetry Library are the two organisations that have been most help in the UK.
They also do so much more. I do want to hear the reasons for the resignations but I can’t really agree with many of the criticisms. Just on a final note. In those ‘glory days’ it was very hard for women poets and we were hardly represented at all in publications. To me it’s fantastic for poets in the UK now, and being a woman poet is certainly much better now. I wouldn’t go back to those days and wish it had been like this in the 1970s and 1980s. Loved seeing Ginsberg live though!