World Poetry Day ~ 2026!
Tomorrow celebrates the above so I'm a day early which makes a change. The background as to how the 21st of March was adopted, you'll have to chase up but it is what it is. The theme for the day is, Poetry as a Bridge for Peace and Inclusion, which sets a fair old standard and one that is seldom realized as some the best poems rest in conflict, but perhaps the theme is to inspire the writing of such. Shelley in 1821 claimed that, "poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world" and he was true in that as no one else tells the truth. The mainstream media in their careful columns feed us a tailored version of the truth so as not to annoy anyone that is of present importance. W.H. Auden said that "poetry makes nothing happen" but maybe he meant that it's not supposed to. The above line is from his poem "In Memory of W.B. Yeats" and I'll leave it to yourself to interpret. Much of modern poetry especially in its academic environs is a form of embroidery and well if you like that sort of thing. Yeats himself was closer to a more dangerous truth, "Did that play of mine send out certain men the English shot", referring to " Cathleen ni Houlihan" (1902) and what he believed or wondered as to its influence on the 1916 rising. Bad poetry makes nothing happen. The other hangs around for a long time; good or bad. If you can write a poem or read one that serves as a bridge for peace and inclusion then for God's sake do so.The world's goes mad again. I'll wander off now.
