Article
World Poetry Day: A Retrospective
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March 23, 2012
On Wednesday, we celebrated the day that since March 21, 2000 has been set aside by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) as World Poetry Day.
Pakistan’s Daily Times stated that the day “passed silently once again, as no prominent literary organisation arranged any significant event to celebrate the role and achievements of poets, who play crucial role in reforming society through their writings”, but in the true spirit of poetry, this did not stop print and electronic magazines, grassroots organisations and individuals around the world from paying tribute to poetry in their own ways, and the social media airwaves were full of World Poetry Day greetings.
In Ghana, the day was largely celebrated in introspection. The Ghana Writers Association organised a series of poetry and musical performances, calling Ghanaians to appreciate the value poetry has in their lives. The President of GAW, Kwasi Gyan-Apenteng, stated that “Poetry is not only about reciting things, but even the reading of the Bible and Quaran, the rap music we listen to are all forms of poetry. In fact poetry has become part of our society and daily lives.”
Greek poets, writers and everyday citizens marked the day by protesting austerity, where they “danced on stilts and shared rhymes” instead of throwing Molotov cocktails. Poet and event organiser Yiorgos Chouliaras said that “we thought there was a need for something different . . . This is a protest where the slogans are the words of our poets and in support of the values of culture”.
Web of Stories, based in the United Kingdom, released an interview with Award-Winning Lithuanian Poet Tomas Venclova, who reminisces about his life and about the attraction that writing can have. After emigrating to America, he remarks that “I thought that it was possible that I’d end up as a lorry driver, for example, or a cleaner or a road layer. But that didn’t happen, I’d been a philologist and a writer and I remained a philologist and a writer.”
For South Africa, World Poetry Day coincided with Human Rights Day, and also with the 15th Time of the Writer Festival, which this year ran under the theme “Human Writes”. Hosted by the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Centre for Creative Arts, this year it is a specific reminder of the kind of empowerment that writing can bring to groups that might otherwise be voiceless, and the ways in which it can be “tool, a weapon, a form of healing”. In the words of Peter Rorvik, director of UKZN’s Centre for Creative Arts, it is a reminder that one of the many goals of the writer is to “champion human rights” and “challenge the erosion of freedom” around the world.
PIW celebrated the day with a poem about poetry and war, written by Remco Campert, who hails from our home country of the Netherlands, and translated by Donald Gardner.
The above image comes from Stock.XCHNG, under a Creative Commons license.
Pakistan’s Daily Times stated that the day “passed silently once again, as no prominent literary organisation arranged any significant event to celebrate the role and achievements of poets, who play crucial role in reforming society through their writings”, but in the true spirit of poetry, this did not stop print and electronic magazines, grassroots organisations and individuals around the world from paying tribute to poetry in their own ways, and the social media airwaves were full of World Poetry Day greetings.
In Ghana, the day was largely celebrated in introspection. The Ghana Writers Association organised a series of poetry and musical performances, calling Ghanaians to appreciate the value poetry has in their lives. The President of GAW, Kwasi Gyan-Apenteng, stated that “Poetry is not only about reciting things, but even the reading of the Bible and Quaran, the rap music we listen to are all forms of poetry. In fact poetry has become part of our society and daily lives.”
Greek poets, writers and everyday citizens marked the day by protesting austerity, where they “danced on stilts and shared rhymes” instead of throwing Molotov cocktails. Poet and event organiser Yiorgos Chouliaras said that “we thought there was a need for something different . . . This is a protest where the slogans are the words of our poets and in support of the values of culture”.
Web of Stories, based in the United Kingdom, released an interview with Award-Winning Lithuanian Poet Tomas Venclova, who reminisces about his life and about the attraction that writing can have. After emigrating to America, he remarks that “I thought that it was possible that I’d end up as a lorry driver, for example, or a cleaner or a road layer. But that didn’t happen, I’d been a philologist and a writer and I remained a philologist and a writer.”
For South Africa, World Poetry Day coincided with Human Rights Day, and also with the 15th Time of the Writer Festival, which this year ran under the theme “Human Writes”. Hosted by the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Centre for Creative Arts, this year it is a specific reminder of the kind of empowerment that writing can bring to groups that might otherwise be voiceless, and the ways in which it can be “tool, a weapon, a form of healing”. In the words of Peter Rorvik, director of UKZN’s Centre for Creative Arts, it is a reminder that one of the many goals of the writer is to “champion human rights” and “challenge the erosion of freedom” around the world.
PIW celebrated the day with a poem about poetry and war, written by Remco Campert, who hails from our home country of the Netherlands, and translated by Donald Gardner.
The above image comes from Stock.XCHNG, under a Creative Commons license.
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