Poetry Magazines - The best collection of poetry magazines online - Simon Armitage

A Diamond Jubilee is an appropriate occasion not so much to review the past sixty years of service to poetry as to look forward to the next sixty years. In the world of 1969 what is the true purpose of The Poetry Society, and in the immediate years ahead what should its function be ? To these questions one may receive many answers. There are more aspiring poets today than ever before, and they need the encouragement of an atmosphere that is favourable to their work—the availability of a listening audience, the opportunity of technical discussion, the chance of their poems appearing in print. These are all services that The Poetry Society has provided and will continue to provide to an increasing degree.

It is important, however, that the circle in which these activities occur is not an esoteric one. There are many kinds of worthwhile poetry and there is a growing number of young people who wish to experience the entire range that poetry, modern and traditional, has to offer. One envisages as one of the functions of The Poetry Society the creation of an atmosphere at Earls Court Square which is both receptive and stimulating. Receptive in the sense that a poet of eighty might meet a poet of twenty and neither feel out of place; stimulating in that what is new and untried may also have its fling and its fair share of the resources available. Such development would provide a point of equilibrium at which a proper concern for experiment could meet with a proper concern for tradition; and where there would be bridges between the old and the new for those who choose to use them.

One sees then not an inward-looking society but the outline of a Centre whose effects would radiate outwards. If such a centre were fully equipped not only with books, which it has at present, but also records and tapes adequate to form its own discotheque, and an experimental laboratory for sound, lighting and kinetic effects, one might feel that perhaps we were beginning dimly to move in a technological direction which the future might seem to hold. One could of course expand one's vision of such a centre to include modern lecture rooms, revolving theatre, art rooms, children's rooms and so on. Today the movement towards a central meeting point of the arts continues to grow. The concept of a poetry society is becoming replaced by that of a poetry centre. As yet, however, no one has formulated clearly and in detail the form which such a Poetry Centre might take. When they do it will be found that such a definition will inevitably include much of the work performed by The Poetry Society over the past sixty years together with many ideas towards which our thoughts are now turning for the new and even more exciting years that lie ahead.

NORMAN HIDDEN
Chairman, The Poetry Society