Coronavirus: Dame Carol Ann Duffy leads poetic response

Duffy said people needed "the voice of poetry in times of change and world grief"

Dame Carol Ann Duffy has launched a project aimed at "creating a living record" of the coronavirus pandemic "as seen through our poets' eyes".

Manchester Writing School's Write Where We Are Now will be filled with "reflection and inspiration", she said.

The former poet laureate, who is the school's creative director, has written three new pieces for the archive.

Poetry Society president Roger McGough, Scottish Makar Jackie Kay and BBC Radio 3's Ian McMillan have also contributed.

Duffy said the collection would offer a poetic response to challenging times, as well as "creating a living record of what is happening as seen through our poets' eyes and ears, in their gardens or garrets".

"We need the voice of poetry in times of change and world grief.

"A poem only seeks to add to the world and now seems the time to give," she added.

Hands by Dame Carol Ann Duffy

We clap at the darkness.

hearken for the sound

of my daughter's small hands,

but she is miles away...

though I can see her hands

when I put my head in my own.

Ian McMillan, whose son Andrew is senior lecturer of creative writing at the university and has also contributed to the collection, said poetry was an essential way of documenting difficult times.

"At times of crisis and turbulence like these, we turn to the heightened language and alphabet music of poetry, because poetry can help to articulate the vortex we find ourselves spinning in," he said.

"I'm proud to be associated with this project, which is the opposite of self-isolation."

A spokesman for the writing school, part of Manchester Metropolitan University, said each work submitted to the online collection would be given a location tag for context and reflect "on the writer's own personal experiences of the outbreak from all over the world".

As such, they would support readers "in reflecting on and articulating their own feelings through the power of poetry", he added.

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