HAPPY WORLD POETRY DAY!!!!

At a time when poetry is flourishing, this day could provide an occasion for activities and efforts carried out at different levels to support poetry and more particularly to promote:

-the efforts of small publishers who are struggling to enter the book market by publishing more and more collections by young poets;

-a return to the oral tradition, or rather to live performance, since poetry recitals attract more and more people today;

-the restoration of dialogue between poetry and the other arts such as theatre, dance, music, painting and so on, and with topical themes like the culture of peace, non-violence, tolerance, etc.;

-the association, on the occasion of World Poetry Day, of all the arts and philosophy, which is also akin to poetry, so as to breathe new meaning into the dictum of Delacroix who wrote in his Journal: "There is no art without poetry";

-the image of poetry in the media so that the art of poetry will no longer be considered an outdated form of art but one which enables society as a whole to regain and assert its identity.

Message by the Director-General of UNESCO on the occasion of World Poetry Day - 21 March 2003

There are too many people, and too few human beings.
-Robert Zend