Today (21 March) marks UNESCO’s World Poetry Day and could you imagine a world without this literary form of art? I for one, could not and I believe our world is richer and more beautiful with poetry in it. Poetry reaffirms our common humanity by revealing that we share the same questions and feelings around the world.
From Maya Angelou to Robert Frost, Edgar Allen Poe to Oscar Wilde, the list of famous poets are endless, and what great works of are they have contributed! The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost, remains one of my favorite pieces.
What is World Poetry Day all about?
On this day, UNESCO celebrates the unique ability of poetry to capture the creative spirit of the human mind. It has been celebrated since 1999 and aims to:
- support linguistic diversity through poetic expression;
- to offer endangered languages the opportunity to be heard within their communities;
- to encourage a return to the oral tradition of poetry recitals;
- to promote the teaching of poetry, to restore a dialogue between poetry and the other arts such as theatre, dance, music and painting;
- to support small publishers and create an attractive image of poetry in the media, so that the art of poetry will no longer be considered an outdated form of art, but one which enables society as a whole to regain and assert its identity
Let’s celebrate World Poetry Day
At Pamper.my we’d like to celebrate World Poetry Day by celebrating the art form in itself.
The Malaysian Poets Society
Check out their website for a collection of poems from various contributors (listed on their website), who write about their feelings of Malaysia, love, death and sadness, faith and hope, deep thinkers, travels, and a whole lot more. It’s a great resource for local poetry and we hope you enjoy it as much as we do. If you love writing poetry yourself, you can find out how to be a part of their team.
Poetry Cafe KL
Check out their community Facebook page for updates on key poetry events happening around Malaysia. It’s a great resource to keep abreast of and they often host poetry open mic nights and workshops too. It’s a great way to network and meet fellow like-minded people.
Pay for coffee with a poem
Though Malaysia isn’t part of this just yet, we hope it’ll come to our city some day soon! Just recite a poem at participating coffee stores, and you’ll get your coffee for the day for FREE. How amazing would that be? It would be amazing to see people from all walks of life, recite a poem they hold dear to them. You’ll be surprised by how many poem-lovers are out there.
Here are some beautiful lines of poetry…
“It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul” – Invictus by W.E. Henley
“I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love,
If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles.” – Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
“I would like to be the air
that inhabits you for a moment
only. I would like to be that unnoticed
and that necessary.” – Variations on the Word Sleep by Margaret Atwood
“Love at the lips was touch
As sweet as I could bear
And once that seemed too much
I lived on air.” – Earthward by T.S. Eliot
“Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no; it is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests, and is never shake.” – Sonnet 116 by Willian Shakespeare
“A voice said, Look me in the stars
And tell me truly, men of earth,
If all the soul-and-body scars
Were not too much to pay for birth.” – A Question by Robert Frost
“I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils.” by Williams Wordsworth
“You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.” – Still I Rise by Maya Angelou
Also, check out this list of contemporary poets you need to read by BuzzFeed.
– Cover Image: opiemme.com
