Paul Farley responds to your poems

On Thursday, the nation celebrates National Poetry Day.

The BBC asked News website readers to come up with their poems on the most pressing issue of the day - the credit crunch.

Resident poet for National Poetry Day, Paul Farley, read a selection of your poems and and sent us his comments.

National Poetry Day's resident poet Paul Farley

"Seeing a healthy response following a BBC request for poems about the ailing financial climate doesn't entirely surprise. In the recent past, at times of great anxiety, people have found this urge to write poetry; this urge towards verse. Whether this is people trying to give shape to the chaos of life happening, or wanting to raise their voice above the statistical flow, I don't know. But at times like this, poetry always reminds me of candles - at least, candles before they became trendy and scented. Most of the time you forget that they're there, in a cupboard or kitchen drawer, until all the lights go out, and they suddenly seem like the most simple and miraculous of things, lighting the dark a little for us."

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