UNESCO adopted the 21st of March as World Poetry Day during its 30th General Conference in Paris in 1999, “with the aim of supporting linguistic diversity through poetic expression and increasing the opportunity for endangered languages to be heard”.
Audrey Azoulay, Director General of UNESCO, talks like this about poetry:
"Arranged in words, colored with images, struck with the right meter, the power of poetry has no match. As an intimate form of expression that opens doors to others, poetry enriches the dialogue that catalyzes all human progress, and is more necessary than ever in turbulent times."
UNESCO does several actions to promote poetry and literature in general like the designation of the World Book Capital every year to promote the power of books and the influence of literature in our society. Designated cities should create activities to spread willingness not only to write but to read. The program was established in 2001 and Madrid, the capital of Spain, was the first World Book Capital.
Coming back to the core of this article, the poetry itself, we need to mention what this literary art represents for top writers. Spanish late great Federico García Lorca said about poetry that “it is something that walks around the streets. Something that moves and passes next to us. Everything has a mystery and poetry is the mystery of everything”.
Uruguayan world-class author Mario Benedetti opines the following:
“Because the problem is that: that poetry bites. For being free, questioning, transgressive, questioning, subjective, fanciful, hermetic at times and communicative at others. That's why it bites. And that is why a good part of the public (I mean the one who reads, of course) prefers prose that often contains answers, obeys plans and structures, is usually objective, knows how to organize its fantasies and in general does not bite, especially when they put (or puts on) the muzzle. Even in times of censorship, and given that censors are not usually specialists in metaphors, poetry usually passes through customs with much more grace than prose”.
To finish this article and to give a most personal perspective on poetry, I would like to share with you these humble words:
Poetry is freedom,
poetry is justice,
poetry is love,
but poetry also can be disaffection,
punishment
and a cage of feelings, of ideas.
Poetry is the world in your hand,
your heart and your mind at once.
Enjoy poetry.