Poets reading around the statue of Sir John Betjeman at St Pancras station in London, others accosting bus passengers in Wakefield, a big BBC poetry festival getting under way in Hull, poster poems unveiled in shop windows in Marsden, and a poetry workshop in Stratford-upon-Avon are just a few of the many events taking place around the country on National Poetry Day, Thursday 28 September.

The theme of this year’s National Poetry Day is “freedom”. The BBC’s Contains Strong Language poetry festival gets under way in Hull, 2017’s City of Culture, with a reading by celebrated poet Douglas Dunn at Hull Central Library; later at the library poets Dean Wilson and Vicky Foster will be performing poems written by listeners to BBC Radio Humberside; there’s  the gala launch of the Hull 17 poets, an event spread over two nights at Kardomah 64; and Ian McMillan presents a special edition of Radio 3’s The Verb on spoken word in the UK, an event that also marks performance organisation’s Apples and Snakes 35th anniversary.

In London, there will be poetry throughout the day at St Pancras in events organised by Poet in the City.  From 9am until 5pm “poetry buskers” will be performing; from 12.30-1.30pm there’s a workshop with Rachel Long outside Hatchards in the station; then from 6.30-7.45pm there’s a music and poetry finale at the famous Betjeman statue.

In the West Yorkshire Pennine settlement of Marsden, where residents have declared themselves a “poetry village”,  organisers will be launching Poster Poems, with 25 music-themed poems chosen from a competition displayed around the village in shop windows, on pub walls and in cafes, as part of the countdown to Marsden jazz festival early next month. The launch takes place at A Month of Sundaes in Peel Street at 5pm.

Passengers on the 59 bus in Wakefield may be startled to encounter the Ukulele Lady and her Boy, musician Jacqui Wicks and poet Ralph Dartford, on Thursday. The event is part of the Hear My Voice Barnsley Project in collaboration with Wakefield lit festival.

Meanwhile in Stratford-upon-Avon Dave Reeves, poet in residence at the Black Country Living Museum, and performance poet and mixed media artist Wendy Freeman will run a poetry workshop among the recently restored medieval wall painting of Stratford’s Guild Chapel. Defaced and limewashed in the 16th century  – on orders given to John Shakespeare, father of the playwright - and hidden for hundreds of years, the medieval wall paintings are now said to be among the finest to have survived in Europe.

In the countdown to National Poetry Day poets in Bradford have been on location filming recitals of their own verse at landmark spots across the city. These films will be launched on Thursday on Bradford’s Big Screen in City Park. 

There are other events in Nottingham, Sheffield, in Poynton, Cheshire, at Wivenhoe, to mark the opening of the Essex poetry festival as well, and back in London, where Roger McGough will be reading, as well as Poetry Society events at the Poetry Café, too. Poems will also be broadcast at Covent Garden tube station from 10 to 4, with members of the Poetry Society handing out poems to passers-by. There's poetry action at other tube stations, too. At Piccadilly Circus, Charing Cross, Tottenham Court Road and Leicester Square, poets from Poet in the City will be reading poetry exploring this year’s theme of freedom and global travel. 

The annual celebrations come as poetry sales are booming, with sales up by around a sixth in volume and value compared to this last year, the Bookseller reports. Latest figures shows that poetry has sold 611,990 books for £5.5m for the year to date (to 12 August), which is 15% up on 2016’s 531,788 books sold and 13% up on its value of £4.9m.

You can find many more events taking place on Thursday 28 October on the National Poetry Day website.

Background: Poets to highlight forgotten dialect words