Poetry as a Bridge for Peace and Inclusion: World Poetry Day-2025 theme

The UN-proclaimed and UNESCO coordinated World Poetry Day (WPD) is observed very year on March 21 since in 1999 to 'honour one of humanity's most profound forms of cultural and linguistic expression.' The observance is also meant to 'promote the reading, writing, publishing, and teaching of poetry worldwide.'

The theme for the WPD-2025 is "Poetry as a Bridge for Peace and Inclusion" to signify poetry's role in fostering and nurturing harmony and deepening understanding by bringing people together with shared values. It is held that poetry has both cognitive and non-cognitive functions. It also has potential to express deep emotions and humanize people

UNESCO Director-General, Audrey Azoulay, in her message stated ,"Arranged in words, coloured 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 catalyses all human progress, and is more necessary than ever in turbulent times."

Here, I reproduce some parts of my earlier write-up.

According to UNESCO, poetry has a unique ability to capture the creative spirit of the human mind gets recognised. “Poetry reaffirms our common humanity by revealing to us that individuals, everywhere in the world, share the same questions and feelings. Poetry is the mainstay of oral tradition and, over centuries, can communicate the innermost values of diverse cultures,” adds UNESCO by asserting poetry that speaks to our common humanity and our shared values, transforming the simplest of poems into a powerful catalyst for dialogue and peace.

One can celebrate the day by the the following suggested way.

• Supporting dialects and local languages through poetic expression and to offer endangered languages the opportunity to be heard within their communities

• Encouraging a return to the oral tradition of poetry recitals, to promote the teaching of poetry

• Honouring poets and reviving oral traditions of poetry recitals

• Restoring a dialogue between poetry and the other arts such as theatre, dance, music and painting, and 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and create an attractive image of poetry in the media, so that the art of poetry will no longer be considered an outdated form of art, but one which enables society as a whole to regain and assert its identity.

• Celebrating the linguistic expression of our common humanity