JAMAICA now has a national poetry archive.

World Poetry Day was commemorated on Monday and, in observance, the National Library of Jamaica used the day to launch its online repository of Jamaican poets and their work.

The poets who now appear in the archive were chosen based on criteria established by the poet laureate committee, and chosen by vote from a list of worthy candidates. In order to be considered, poets should have already distinguished themselves through publications, recordings, awards and international recognition.

Speaking at the launch of the new portal, current Poet Laureate Olive Senior noted that the electronic archive will be a repository of primary material that can be consulted by the public.

“On this website you can now see, but more importantly hear Jamaican poets reading their work and find out more information about each one, along with the text of the poems. The aim is to bring our poets home and into your hearts, not simply as words on a page but within speaking distance — whether they reside in Jamaica or Canada, the USA, the UK or elsewhere.”

Senior explained that the project is starting out small, with a limited number of poets and five to seven minutes of reading. She, however, added that this is a project which is meant to grow, with a new cadre of poets being added each year as well as expansion of the offerings of the archive into other areas.

“What you see and hear on the website represents the generosity of the poets, who have contributed the poems and recordings as their gift to Jamaica. This will be an enormously useful tool for students and young poets,” said Senior.

She, however, sought to clear up any questions which might arise about the absence of some of the more popular Jamaican poets.

“In looking at the website you might feel disappointed at the absence of some of your favourite poets, the people who should obviously be there, and we too are disappointed. I’d like to emphasise that this is merely the start of what is going to be a continuous process over time; it’s very important to recognise that. The poetry archive is not a competition to see who gets on now; it is a way to honour our best poets and their work. Because of limited resources only a small number of poets can be accommodated now and in each subsequent year. Some poets that we invited were unable to provide the information requested by the deadline and so do not yet appear on the archive. They will be added as the information becomes available. Others are yet to respond to the invitation,” she said.

The poets making it into the Jamaica Poetry Archive are Olive Senior, Professor Edward Baugh, Professor Mervyn Morris, Pamela Mordercai, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Lilian Allen, Christine Craig, Safiya Sinclair, Shara McCallum, Oku Onura, Velma Pollard and Ishion Hutchinson.

The next set of poets to be added to the archive will be chosen later this year and will be announced on World Poetry Day 2023.