blueprints

a plaCe For poetry
Building Models for Poetry Programming in Communities—
Poets House
lee Briccetti
When schoolchildren visit the Poets House library, I sometimes feel I am present
at the birth of poetry. A palpable energy manifests itself during a class trip as the
students understand that poetry is alive and belongs to them! Or when a program
audience listens to something surprising in language and the gathered attention creates
an invitation to listen more deeply. Not to say that place is necessary to this kind of
discovery, but it certainly can—and does—facilitate a means of entry and sense of
community.
When Poets House opened its new home, my colleagues and I were surprised
as the crowds of people touring the space started reading in excited quiet almost
immediately—even during the grand opening celebrations—as if they had been
hungry for a long time. The complications of our capital project had made it necessary
for our collection to go into storage for two full years during construction. So it
was joyous to see the books “in conversation” with readers again. The teenager with
a nose ring reading Giacomo Leopardi. Families with young children enjoying the
tactile pleasure of sitting close together and reading out loud. Reading is relationship.
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