In a special bonus episode for the 25th anniversary of National Poetry Day 2019, the new Poet Laureate Simon Armitage, a former probation officer, explores this year's all too timely theme: Truth.

In these days of empty words and exhausted rhetoric, does poetry open a path to reconciliation of conflicting truths? Can the language of poetry achieve what the language of politics and the judiciary fails to do? And can an interest in the nuances of truth ever become a professional liability? 

With insight and compassion, Armitage reads and discusses Michael Longley's great 1994 poem “Ceasefire”, a sonnet published in The Irish Times on the eve of the Irish peace process, 25 years ago.

 

Tell Me The Truth About Life: A National Poetry Day Anthology, curated by Cerys Matthews, is published by Michael O’Mara Books. Share poems that speak a truth to you via Twitter using #TellMeTheTruthAboutLife.

To celebrate National Poetry Day’s 25th anniversary, join British-Indian writer, artist and poet Nikita Gill as she reads and discusses her favourite poems, and the lines of poetry that speak truth to her.

With a huge online following, Nikita uses Instagram to share her work where she has over 500k followers (@nikita_gill). An ambassador for National Poetry Day, her words have captivated hearts and minds all over the world, and become a force for social change. 

 

Sharing and discussing poems including Tell all the truth but tell it slant and They shut me up in Prose by Emily Dickinson, and her own poem Indescribable Unbelonging, she talks about the variety of responses to her poems across the world - from making people feel less alone to her words being used in women’s marches - and how poetry can be a lifeline in giving women a voice. Touching upon the Indian songs and stories from her childhood, she explores her shifting ideas of home and belonging, and the rise of online platforms in making poetry more accessible and allowing people to be heard.

 

Tell Me The Truth About Life: A National Poetry Day Anthology, curated by Cerys Matthews, is published by Michael O’Mara Books. Share poems that speak a truth to you via Twitter using #TellMeTheTruthAboutLife.

 

To celebrate National Poetry Day’s 25th anniversary, join Scottish poet, writer and teacher Kate Clanchy as she reads and discusses her favourite poems, and the lines of poetry that speak truth to her.

 

An award-winning poet, novelist and non-fiction writer, Kate was born in Glasgow and lived in London’s East End for several years before moving to Oxford where she is now writer-in-residence at Oxford Spires Academy, a comprehensive where the children speak over 30 languages. Winner of prizes including the Forward Poetry Prize and Scottish Arts Council Book Award, her recent book Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me looks back over her 30-year career in teaching, and she writes for various national newspapers and BBC Radio.

 

Sharing and discussing poems including Poem by Simon Armitage (specially read by Simon himself), When I Came from Nepal by Mukahang Limbu and The Wild Swans at Coole by W. B. Yeats, she talks about women poets, her experiences in how pupils write poems and respond to them, and the process of writing authentically.

 

Tell Me The Truth About Life: A National Poetry Day Anthology, curated by Cerys Matthews, is published by Michael O’Mara Books. Share poems that speak a truth to you via Twitter using #TellMeTheTruthAboutLife.

 

Comedy writer behind hit shows The Royle Family and the Mrs Merton Show, Henry founded the production company Baby Cow with Steve Coogan in 1999, going on to produce BAFTA-winning and Oscar-nominated hits including Gavin and Stacey, Red Dwarf, The Mighty Boosh and Philomena. Also a poet, Henry is founder of the Manchester Poetry Festival and co-Founder of the Nottingham Poetry Festival.

 

Sharing and discussing poems including Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley, Wait for Me by Konstantin Simonov and his own poems The House is Not the Same Since You Left, A Prayer for the Hesitant and Photos with My Son, he speaks about the ever-growing popularity of poetry in allowing us to share universal feelings such as loss, and how writing poems allows him to express his inner life with his family. As Henry’s writing and performing poetry led to a career in comedy, he talks about how becoming a father changed him, and how important it is for men to communicate their emotions.

 

Tell Me The Truth About Life: A National Poetry Day Anthology, curated by Cerys Matthews, is published by Michael O’Mara Books. Share poems that speak a truth to you via Twitter using #TellMeTheTruthAboutLife.

To celebrate National Poetry Day’s 25th anniversary, join actor and poet Jade Anouka as she reads and discusses her favourite poems, and the lines of poetry that speak truth to her. 

Well-known for various screen and stage roles, Jade has starred in ITV dramas including Trauma and Clearing Up, and Phyllida Lloyd's all-female Shakespeare trilogy, starring as Mark Antony in Julius Caesar, Hotspur in Henry IV, and Ariel in The Tempest.

 

Sharing and discussing poems including A Litany for Survival by Audre Lorde, And Still I Rise by Maya Angelou and her own poem My Body Is Mine, she explores how poetry allows her the freedom to express herself, and the power of language in allowing us to feel emotions. Touching upon how poetry inspires conversation between generations of women, she discusses gender, identity, and the pressures and responsibilities she faces in expressing herself as a black female poet.

 

Tell Me The Truth About Life: A National Poetry Day Anthology, curated by Cerys Matthews, is published by Michael O’Mara Books. Share poems that speak a truth to you via Twitter using #TellMeTheTruthAboutLife.

To celebrate National Poetry Day’s 25th anniversary, join author and storymaker Michael Morpurgo as he reads and discusses his favourite poems, and the lines of poetry that speak truth to him. Well-known to many for his novel War Horse, adapted into both a play and a film, Michael has written over 200 books and is a former Children’s Laureate.

 

Sharing and discussing poems including The Life That I Have by Leo Marks, My Own True Family by Ted Hughes, and Digging by Seamus Heaney, he speaks about the similarities between words and music, the importance of using poetry as a rallying call to look after nature and the environment, and the lines of verse he’d like to be remembered by. Exploring how certain poems bind people together with universal truths, he reflects on the process of writing and how our experiences can inspire us all to write and tell our own truths.

 

Tell Me The Truth About Life: A National Poetry Day Anthology, curated by Cerys Matthews, is published by Michael O’Mara Books. Share poems that speak a truth to you via Twitter using #TellMeTheTruthAboutLife.