Spinning poetry
Joseph Coelho has built his career on a love of poetry and stories and the powerful positive effect they can have on us as individuals, and as part of a shared experience. For his latest project, Spin, he puts the spotlight on nine new poets, sharing their work to a wider audience. Joseph speaks about Spin, his time as Waterstones Children’s Laureate and his love of libraries.
POETRY has a power to touch people in ways that other writing can struggle to emulate. It may be brief in length, but its impact can be long-lasting – leaving the reader (or listener) with interpretations and meaning that are as individual as they are. Children’s Laureate Joseph Coelho has seen how poetry, how his own words, can alter perceptions and build new understanding of the world around us and the world within. He says: “Because it is writing that often deals with matters of the heart. Poetry talks of our emotions, our loves and fears, our worries and dislikes and lays them out in a bitesized digestible form. It is a form that connects with young and old equally if they are given the opportunities to find poems that speak to them and (critically) to see themselves as poets.”
A reading culture
There is an accessibility around poetry that may not be present in longer form writing. A poem can be finished in minutes, so even reluctant readers can delve into them and there are ways to make poetry bring a love of reading to life. Often the biggest barrier to developing a love of poetry is that it is not seen or heard. Joseph says: “First and foremost it needs to be remembered that children mimic so if they see a rich reading culture in their schools that includes all sorts of mediums and materials (novels, non-fiction, comics, magazines, online sites) then they will, by osmosis, absorb those habits.
Spring-Summer 2024
“I recall visiting a school many years ago that had compulsory reading time every day for fifteen minutes. An announcement was made and every single person in that school – every student, every member of staff, even visiting guests would have to down tools and read. Practices like these are wonderful at showing children that reading is for everyone. Poetry, being a short medium, is very easy to slip into the school day. “Teachers can take advantage of my Poetry Prompts over on the booktrust website (
www.booktrust.org.uk/ poetryprompts). A new video goes live every Monday and in those videos I share a fun and accessible way to write a poem. Each video has purposefully been designed to be no more than 10 minutes in length so that videos can be put on during registration or during the last ten minutes of the school day. There are also accompanying resources that tie into the curriculum created by Charlotte Hacking at CLPE so if teachers want to take their classroom poetry further there is every opportunity… and it’s all free.”
Performance
As Joseph has already pointed out, “osmosis” can be a great way of instilling that love, which means having poetry books readily available in the library and classroom. And his latest book, sees him hand over the reins to a group of new poets for the anthology Spin. He says: “The inspiration for Spin grew out of my realisation that there are a tonne of amazing performance poets out there who do not necessarily get the opportunity to be traditionally published.
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