ABSTRACT
Rarely have encounters between British poets and their audiences been as electric as those of Carol Ann Duffy's 'Shore to Shore' tour during June 2016. The unforeseen compression between political upheaval and the public performance of poetry amplified the tour's already heightened sensitivity to national identity, cultural borders, and the geopolitics of place. This chapter reflects on 'Shore to Shore' and the resonance of its poetry. The articulation between poets, poems and audience became profound and shifting under the pressure of political tumult. New allegiances, changed identities, an abandoned and abandoning homeland, all adjuncts of border crossings to which the 'Shore to Shore' poets had become so finely attuned, were announced as internalised and familial. The 'Shore to Shore' Tour was billed by the sponsor, Duffy's publisher, Picador, as a 'Celebration of Poetry and Community'. It was unforeseeable how successfully poetry and community would come together through these readings.
