Makar’s plea on the power of poetry

The work of artists can provide a shelter and a refuge from the “surreal and psychotic” modern world, Scotland’s national poet told the Edinburgh International Book Festival.

Makar Jackie Kay said it was more important than ever to use poetry to educate young peopleabouttheimpactofwar and encourage them to write their own “peace poems.”

She was speaking at the unveiling of her new work marking the centenary of the meeting of war poets Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon in Edinburgh.

Kay spoke of the “real changes she had noticed in Scotland on her travels around the country since replacing Liz Lochhead as Makar.

She added: “You get a sense of this political maelstrom of a year and the ways in which people feel ever more comforted by poetry and the arts in general. Art can be some sort of shelter, a refuge and a place to go to in these unbelievably surreal and psychotic times. Let’s not mince words.

“There was something about the First World War which changed people in a really dramatic way and affected so many different families.

“Having a grandfather that was injured in the war and was also a prisoner of war made a real impression on me.

“But so too did finding out about the war poets at school and getting taught these poems which were written in ordinary language about the war. Just when we want to look away, as a society we must look back and we must remember.”