| The opening of St Andrew Square to the general public for the first time in over 230 years offers an opportunity for poetry to be promoted and experienced in the city by both residents and visitors.
The new space will link to work by the Edinburgh Makar, as well as plans for National Poetry Day. Organisations are working to develop the idea of St Andrew Square as a place where poetry new and old is heard, read, displayed, promoted and enjoyed.
Edinburgh has long been a world capital of culture and the arts. Its status as a World Heritage Site and the first UNESCO City of Literature, as well as host to the largest International Book Festival in the world suggests a tradition of creativity being embedded into the very fabric of the city. Poetry has played a central role in that tradition, helping to tell and retell the story not just of the city but of the nation.
With the support of Coffee Republic, operators of a coffee shop in the Square, there will be a celebration of poetry in the garden in June. Large-scale poems will be displayed on the glass frontage of the cafe, as well as quotes and poems printed on the napkins. The first quote to appear will be from R L Stevenson's ‘Translations from Martial':
"So free the access, the doors so widely thrown
You half imagine all to be your own."
  
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