Poets for Haiti, January 30, 2010, Westminster Central Hall, London


This was a good attempt at a poetry equivalent of Live Aid, or 2005’s Tsunami event at the Millenium Stadium. Quite a few big names, with Carol Ann Duffy standing in as Bob Geldof.


The sizeable audience that filled the Westminster Hall gasped collectively when Gordon (Bono?) Brown was invited to the stage as surprise special guest. And I must admit, I was quite in awe to suddenly find myself seated mere yards from the Prime Minister. And whatever your views on him, seeing him speak live, you realise what a good orator he is, a necessary skill of any politician, I suppose. He said a lot of nice things about poetry and the event itself, before announcing


that the


government would be sending the country’s entire stock of corrugated iron to Haiti


to help out with defences when the


hurricane season hits to further add to the country’s woes. Everyone clapped, and it did sound like a nice gesture, but the cynical side of me felt he’d almost hijacked the event, especially when he only stayed to hear the first poet – not that big a poetry fan after all, it would seem, but I’m sure he’s a busy man.


The poet that got proceedings underway was none other than our own Dannie Abse, a quiet,


awkward kind of a man, in sharp contrast to GB. He was the first of a number of Welsh poets. Robert Minhinnick also read, and he couldn’t resist having a little dig at the PM - “and you can take Blair’s roof tiles as well” or something. No-one seemed quite sure how to react to this, partly because it was slightly incomprehensible, but it was quite amusing that Minhinnick had picked up on the “the Prime Minister has now left the building, you can now be naughty” vibe.


The two other Welsh poets were Owen Sheers and Gillian Clarke. I had never seen Owen Sheers read before. He is apparently regarded by some as poetry’s Mr Pin Up, so I was quite surprised when he let out this little schoolboy-like squeak of a voice – I’d always assumed he’d have a booming bass voice, in the classic Welsh poet tradition.


Gillian Clarke was the only poet who read a poem specifically about Haiti. It had been kind of commissioned by Carol Ann Duffy. I was slightly surprised Carol Ann herself had not written a piece for the occasion – I thought that was her job? By the sounds of things, even Gillian Clarke’s poem had been written almost under duress, and I wasn’t really taken by it – not much more than a list poem really.


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