Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy has launched National Poems For Cathedrals, a countrywide project during  which she will visit all the cathedrals in England.  She will perform in each participating cathedral and write a poem for each city as part of her time in post.

The national poets of Wales and Scotland, Gillian Clarke and Liz Lochhead, have agreed to join the project, giving it the potential to include every cathedral on the British mainland.

The project was launched in Lichfield in Staffordshire as part of the 30^th Lichfield Festival. Duffy has written a Poem For The City which she read at a special event in Lichfield Cathedral on Wednesday 13 July.

On that same night the Lichfield Banner was unveiled. Designed by artist Stephen Raw from letters painted by nearly 500 children and adults in a community arts project, the banner depicts lines from the Lichfield poem.

Duffy, in collaboration with Raw, is hoping to repeat this exercise in cathedrals all over England in the first project of its kind undertaken by a poet laureate. It is intended to publish all the poems and artwork in one book as a legacy of this project and of Duffy’s time as Poet Laureate. Schools will also be involved in order to create a young poet laureate in each city.

“This project will not only challenge me as a poet, but also gives me the opportunity to contribute to the enduring legacy of these great buildings, the spiritual cornerstones of our national heritage,” the Poet Laureate said.

Each cathedral may choose, if they wish, to have the poem placed as a permanent fixture in the building, for example as a window or an engraving.