The words are out on the streets for poetry campaign

FAMOUS lines of verse are to be projected onto landmarks across the Capital as part of a major reading campaign launched today.

The 'Carry A Poem' city-wide reading campaign aims to encourage and inspire Edinburgh's residents to carry poems they love with them.

Over the next month poems will be tattooed onto naked backs, projected, animated, raced in the Poetry Olympics, narrated, read and carried across the Capital.

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Hollywood star Alan Cumming has backed the campaign, writing the foreword to a book featuring the favourite poems of Scots from all walks of life.

Contributors include impressionist Rory Bremner, writer Liz Lochhead, TV star Lorraine Kelly and pupils at Holy Rood High School, who have all chosen their favourite poems for the book.

As part of the initiative, 13,000 free copies of the book will be distributed across the city, through arts and leisure centres, libraries, cafes, and primary and secondary schools.

In addition, 28,000 special pocket poetry cards will be distributed across the city carrying poems for every occasion.

Cumming, a former Bond villain and X-Men star, chose the poem He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven, by the celebrated William Butler Yeats, which he read at his wedding.

He said: "This book is such a good idea. It reminds us of how we need to ingest words for them to resonate with us, and so we need to carry the words that move us most in the places that we protect the most: next to our hearts, in our pockets, in our wallets."

As part of the month-long campaign, selected verse will be projected onto landmarks such as the Melville Monument in St Andrews Square, the City Chambers in the High Street and the National Library on George IV Bridge.

There will also be a poetry treasure hunt, which will see pieces of a poem broken into 12 lines and hidden around the city.

Energetic poetry fans can take the 'Carry A Poem' Olympic Challenge in Holyrood Park, with poem and spoon races, sack races, and toss the poem events.

The event is being co-ordinated by the Edinburgh Unesco City of Literature Trust and the Scottish Poetry Library, and ahead of today's launch in Edinburgh's Central Library. Ali Bowden, director of the trust, said: "Contributions have been pouring in to the website, and people have been uploading pictures of themselves and the poems they carry."

Councillor Deidre Brock, culture leader for the City of Edinburgh, said: "This is an innovative celebration of poetry and the power of words to move, inspire, comfort and delight us."

• The full programme of events and activities running throughout the month can be found on www.carryapoem.com