World Poetry Day is a day to celebrate not only poetry itself, but the incredible people who use their minds and voices to write such incredible words. World Poetry Day is celebrated on March 21st and was created during the 30th General Conference in Paris in 1999 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO. World Poetry Day was created “with the aim of supporting linguistic diversity through poetic expression and increasing the opportunity for endangered languages to be heard,” according to en.unesco.org.
Schools and other educational institutions from all over the world hold poetry contests as a way to celebrate. Poetry is shared by people of all backgrounds. It does not matter the race, culture, ethnicity, gender, sex or sexual orientation of a person. Poetry is a way to connect with others who have experienced the same hardships.
Poetry can also expand someone’s mind about history and cultures different from their own. Poetry is for children too! Not all poetry has to be serious. Some poems can make people laugh through clever
wordplay. A great poet who does this is The Giving Tree Author, Shel Silverstein.
One way to celebrate World Poetry Day that does not involve looking up poets or poetry would be to write your own poem. You don’t have to be the next William Shakespeare to write a poem. All you need is a pen and paper or laptop and an idea in mind.
However, if you would rather look up poets and their poetry, here is a list of some my favorites: Edgar Allan Poe has always been one of my favorite poets. A good poem of his to look up that is rather popular would be The Raven. Another good poem would be She Walks in Beauty by Lord Byron. Some more poem recommendations are, To This Day, by Shane Koyczan and When Love Arrives, by Phil Kaye.
More poet recommendations are E.E. Cummings and Oscar Wilde. Also, a collection of Charles Bukowski poems entitled “You get so alone at times that it just makes sense” is one of my favorites. If you would like some female poet recommendations in honor of Women’s History Month, a few great ones would include Emily Dickinson, Pocket-Sized Feminism by Blythe Baird, and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. Rupi Kaur is my favorite poet and she has three poetry books currently available. Milk and Honey released in 2014, The Sun and Her Flowers released in 2017 and Home Body released in 2020.
While poetry is considered to be a dying art by some because of a world filled with technology, some would say that there are other ways to express one’s feelings and hardships other than poetry. However, I would have to disagree.
Poetry is written every day by all kinds of different people of different backgrounds. More people were probably inspired to write poetry during the COVID-19 pandemic quarantine as well.
Graphic by Katelyn Miller
