Poetry please, everyone: On walls, in parks and offices

The man who invented National Poetry Day today pledged his support for the Evening Standard's literacy campaign.

William Sieghart, who launched the annual event 17 years ago, said the Standard's campaign to boost reading had achieved "great things".

Speaking today, this year's national poetry celebration, he also revealed that London will be covered in verse in the run-up to the Olympics, with poetry on walls and in parks and offices.

He has commissioned Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy to write a poem to be displayed at the Olympic site, and is releasing hundreds of non-copyright poems for Londoners to stick up all over the capital, as part of his Winning Words project.

"Poetry is, for many children, their first experience of reading," said Sieghart. "The Evening Standard literacy campaign has achieved great things and I believe that we can pick up this mantle with Winning Words."

Duffy's poem will be on display at the Eton Manor Olympic venue. Other new poems by four other poets will be painted on electricity sub stations across the Olympic site.

Mr Sieghart said a new "poetry bank" of more than 150 poems will help people "carpet the nation in poetry". Loosely based on Olympic themes such as courage and resolve, they can be used by the public in any way they want.

generator.winningwordspoetry.com