World Poetry Day 2026; March 21st.

 

FORUM: "Write a Poem Today." World Poetry Day 2026.The UNESCO first adopted March 21st as World Poetry Day during its 30th General Conference in Paris in 1999. Practiced throughout history, poetry includes various forms of language, expressions and signification. It is often accompanied by music and performed during special occasions. The universal nature of this artistic expression is shown by the number of elements linked to poetry on the Lists of the 2003 Convention, from the most recently inscribed Pasillo, an Ecuadorian musicalized poem, to the Lebanese Al-Zajal, inscribed in 2014, and the Ukrainian Cossack’s songs of Dnipropetrovsk region inscribed in 2016 on the Urgent Safeguarding List. Being one of the five domains of the 2003 Convention, oral traditions and expressions encompass an enormous variety of spoken forms including proverbs, riddles, tales, nursery rhymes, legends, myths, epic songs and poems, charms, prayers, chants, songs, dramatic performances and more. Oral traditions and expressions are used to pass on knowledge, cultural and social values and collective memory. They play a crucial part in keeping cultures alive. Follow the conversation with the hashtags #WorldPoetryDay; #21March, #Poetryforlife.

EVENTS: On Saturday, March 21st, at UNESCO HQ; The 27th Edition of World Poetry Day will be held. Several activities, public lectures and books fairs will be organized in the Caribbean; Africa; Asia; Middle East; North America; Europe and Pacific regions. Join UNESCO in celebrating poetry across the globe and keep your poetic heritage alive!; During the the World Poetry Day 2026; Participants will be able to celebrate one of humanity’s most treasured forms of cultural and linguistic expressions. This celebration will be an opportunity for each and every one of us to move into the living heart of ourselves and of the world. Register to participate!

Several major poetry and book fairs are scheduled for 2026, featuring dedicated poetry sections, independent presses, and readings. Key events include the Free Verse Poetry Book and Magazine Fair in London (April 25), the AWP Conference & Bookfair in Baltimore (March 4–7), and the Get Lit! Festival in Washington (April 17–19).

Major 2026 Poetry and Book Fairs

• On April 25th, 2026 - Free Verse Poetry Book and Magazine Fair (London, UK): A dedicated fair for poetry books and magazines with exhibitors and a gala reading.
• From March 4–7, 2026 - The AWP Conference & Bookfair (Baltimore, MD): A massive gathering for writers, publishers, and literary magazines.
• Get Lit! Festival (Spokane, WA): April 17–19, 2026. Includes various readings, workshops, and a book fair.
• From March 20–22, 2026 - The Virginia Festival of the Book (Charlottesville, VA): Features poetry, fiction, and non-fiction.
• From June 6–7, 2026 - The LitLit: The Little Literary Fair (Los Angeles, CA): A fair highlighting small and independent presses.
• From January 16–19, 2026 - The Winter Poetry & Prose Getaway (Galloway, NJ): Focuses on writing workshops for poets and writers.
• From September 20–28, 2026 - The Brooklyn Book Festival (Brooklyn, NY) -  A major literary festival with various genres.
• On October 3, 2026 - The Collingswood Book Festival (Collingswood, NJ):Offers multiple, specialized "book nooks," including poetry.

STATEMENTS: Statement from the UNESCO Director-General, on the occasion of World Poetry Day 2026; March 21st.

Poetry reaffirms our common humanity by revealing to us that individuals, everywhere in the world, share the same questions and feelings. A final suggestion about bringing poetry into your lives: don't analyze it, don't ask others to analyze it. Don't deconstruct it or try to make meaning of it.

ACTIVITIES: POETRY PAUSE.

The UNESCO is celebrating the power to question certainties in order to remain open to others, to welcome the world in all its diversity – all essential foundations for building peaceful societies. That is why the Organization stands by poets, especially the younger generation, to enable them to take full advantage of this literary form, and to support the publication of their works.“PROMOTE POETRY”.

PUBLICATIONS : You are invited to read:

The "ART OF POETRY'' - A poet can use the same theme, but in different words and the meaning would not change. There is a need to have art in society today. From the Journal of English language and literature. Read the full publication!

Contemporary Notions of Poetic Imagination in Poetry - These modes of creative imagination as discussed in the previous section include: Prosaic imagination, Pictorial imagination, Fancy imagination, Fancy-realistic. From the University of Waikato, New Zealand, the Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities.

ARISTOTLE ON THE ART OF POETRY - Expression of the poet, ' sowing a god-created flame '. There is still another way in which this kind of meta- phor may be used. From the Cornell University Library, Read the full book!

World poetry Day 2024; March 21st.

FORUM: "Keep your poetic heritage alive!" World Poetry Day 2024.

The UNESCO first adopted March 21stt as World Poetry Day during its 30th General Conference in Paris in 1999. Practiced throughout history, poetry includes various forms of language, expressions and signification. It is often accompanied by music and performed during special occasions. The universal nature of this artistic expression is shown by the number of elements linked to poetry on the Lists of the 2003 Convention, from the most recently inscribed Pasillo, an Ecuadorian musicalized poem, to the Lebanese Al-Zajal, inscribed in 2014, and the Ukrainian Cossack’s songs of Dnipropetrovsk region inscribed in 2016 on the Urgent Safeguarding List. Being one of the five domains of the 2003 Convention, oral traditions and expressions encompass an enormous variety of spoken forms including proverbs, riddles, tales, nursery rhymes, legends, myths, epic songs and poems, charms, prayers, chants, songs, dramatic performances and more. Oral traditions and expressions are used to pass on knowledge, cultural and social values and collective memory. They play a crucial part in keeping cultures alive.

Statement from the UNESCO Director-General, on the occasion of World Poetry Day 2024; March 21st.

Poetry, whether in prose or verse, symbolist, engaged in society or objectivist, has a unique propensity to make us perceive the world around us differently.On this World Poetry Day, UNESCO is celebrating the power to question certainties in order to remain open to others, to welcome the world in all its diversity – all essential foundations for building peaceful societies. That is why our Organization stands by poets, especially the younger generation, to enable them to take full advantage of this literary form, and to support the publication of their works. For example, we facilitated the participation of 10 young Caribbean authors in the 40th Marché de la poésie, in Paris in June 2023. At this poetry festival they were able to showcase their work, discuss it and meet publishers to assist in the publication of their poems.As part of our efforts to safeguard living traditions, UNESCO has also included a number of poetic forms on the Representative List of the Intangible Heritage of Humanity: the Hudhud chants of the Philippines in 2008; the Mapoyo oral tradition of Venezuela(Bolivarian Republic of) in 2014; the Eshuva, Harákmbut sung prayers of Peru, in 2011; and the Koogere oral tradition of Uganda, in 2015.Poetry is a powerfully living art, but it has also, through the centuries and continents, been the key medium societies have used to write their history and preserve the memory of their culture, as well as to record ancestral knowledge. As the Ivorian poet Bernard Binlin Dadié so aptly said in his poem “Tu dors” (“You sleep”), from the collection Hommes de tous les continents (Men of all continents), the poet is “the old watcher/who stands guard over the ramparts”, and has “in his eyes, the dawns of ancient times/And in his head, the song of future times”. The poet is that in-between figure who stands at the crossroads of a bygone past and a future yet to be built.This is why UNESCO is helping to preserve some of the most emblematic poetic texts of their time. In 2023, the Codex Manesse, a collection of medieval German lyric poems, the collection of Turkmen manuscripts of Magtymguly Fragi, and the stone inscriptions of Tsogtu Khung-Taiji, Prince of Khalkha, which are among the finest examples of Mongolian poetry, joined our Memory of the World Register, which aims to safeguard documentary heritage and make it more accessible to the general public.World Poetry Day is thus an opportunity for each and every one of us to move into the living heart of ourselves and of the world, to paraphrase the great Martinican poet and politician Aimé Césaire, in a gesture of peace as internal as it is universal.

Mrs. Audrey Azoulay; UNESCO Director-General.

EVENTS: Join UNESCO in celebrating poetry across the globe and keep your poetic heritage alive!

On March 21st at UNESCO HQ and in the regional offices will observe the World Poetry Day 2024; Participant will celebrate one of humanity’s most treasured forms of cultural and linguistic expressions because Poetry continues to bring people together across continents and is found in a myriad of forms throughout the world. 

World Poetry Day 2023; March 21st.

FORUM “Poetry for Life.” World Poetry Day 2023.

World Poetry Day, which takes place each year on March 21, was first declared by UNESCO 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. 

EVENTS AND POETRY READINGS

Granada City of Literature in Spain leads the Cities of Literature World Poetry Day activity each year, and in 2023 their chosen theme is “Poetry for Life.” Granada’s celebrations commence with an opening ceremony at the City Hall central court, with the attendance of the City Mayor and other authorities from the cultural sphere where three poets will perform a poetry reading. This will be followed by 90 poets reading f in the gardens of the University of Granada Law School, 18 city bookstores and the long-running Poetry Slam Granada, in which 10 poets will compete to be judged the winner by public vote.

In all, a dozen of the 42 Cities of Literature are marking World Poetry Day with programs;

Dunedin, New Zealand: Dunedin has filmed performance poet David Eggleton, New Zealand Poet Laureate 2019-22, reading his iconic poem “What the future holds,” for sharing with our friends around the city, across the country and in other UNESCO Cities of Literature.

Durban, South Africa: Durban will celebrate with a short educational cartoon audio book compiled and written by Qap’s Mngadi and Artmatem Projects and Tradings Pty LTD that is based on true life issues that reflect peer pressure and teaches youth about the dangers of drugs.

Heidelberg, Germany: Heidelberg celebrates with a variety of events, embracing readings, poetry exhibitions and lectures organized by stakeholders such as the Heidelberg Forum for Arts, private initiatives and by writers from the city and the region.

Melbourne, Australia: Celebration includes an online video series with five poets from the cities of Heidelberg and Melbourne, to celebrate the culmination of a unique online writers room, Expedition Poetry.

Milan, Italy: Milan will hold several events between March 14-25 that feature poetry performances with poets and citizens, at Fondazione Mudima and at Triennale Milano.

Nanjing, China: Nanjing Literature Hall will receive a group of student visitors from special education institutes, Nanjing School for the Blind and Nanjing School for the Deaf for a shared poetry reading.

Nottingham, England: Nottingham Playhouse, Writing East Midlands and Nottingham UNESCO City of Literature join efforts for the project “Speak Easy for World Poetry Day,” a spoken world open mic night for young writers.

Seattle: Seattle City of Literature will celebrate by hosting bilingual readings in
Spanish and English according to the theme “Poetry for life.”

Tartu, Estonia: Tartu will celebrate with a diverse program that involves different venues, age groups and audiences. The celebrations begin with poetry performances by children and youth at Tartu Literature House, including members of Tartu Poetry Theatre carrying out poetry happenings in cafés and restaurants.

Wonju, South Korea: Wonju will celebrate with written poems and promotion on the Wonju city-run Facebook. The participants will be citizens from Wonju. Each participating citizen will contribute a poem of their own creation which will be illustrated by Wonju City of Literature posted between March 17-21.

¡Dale vida a la poesía con Poetry Out Loud!

World Poetry Day 2022; March 21st.

FORUM: "Supporting linguistic diversity through poetic expression." World Poetry Day 2022.

On March 21st, we invite you to honour poets, revive oral traditions of poetry recitals, promote the reading, writing and teaching of poetry, foster the convergence between poetry and other arts such as theatre, dance, music and painting, and raise the visibility of poetry in the media.

Statement from Ms Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO for World Poetry Day, March 21st.

This is especially true for indigenous peoples, whose languages and cultures are increasingly under threat, in particular from industrial development, climate change andconflict. For these communities, poetry plays an important role in maintaining linguistic and cultural diversity, and preserving memory. The work of Joy Harjo, a member of the Mvskoke Nation and Poet Laureate of the United States, shows this clearly. Her poem Break My Heart describes her return to Okfuskee, Oklahoma, where her ancestors were violently uprooted and forced west under the Indian Removal Act of 1830. As she states so powerfully:“You cannot force poetryWith a ruler, or jail it at a desk [...]History will always find you, and wrap youIn its thousand arms.” 

Today, on World Poetry Day, UNESCO is shining the spotlight on indigenous poetry, to celebrate its unique and powerful role in standing against marginalization and injustice, and in uniting cultures in a spirit of solidarity.

This Day comes as the United Nations marks the start of the International Decade of Indigenous Languages, led by UNESCO, to reaffirm the commitment of the international community in supporting indigenous peoples to preserve their cultures, knowledge and rights. As part of our efforts to safeguard living traditions, UNESCO has included a number of poetic forms on the Representative List of the Intangible Heritage of Humanity, such as the Hudhud chants of the Philippines, the Mapoyo oral tradition of Venezuela, the Eshuva, Harákmbut sung prayers of Peru, and the Koogere oral tradition of Uganda.Every form of poetry is unique, but each reflects the universal nature of the human experience – our aspiration for creativity that crosses all boundaries and borders. That is the power of poetry.

Director-General of UNESCO.

WEBINARS

- 2022 NY Poetry Out Loud State Final.

Encourage the study of great poetry by offering free educational materials and a dynamic recitation competition for high school students across the country.

Three cheers for the 2022 New York State Poetry Out Loud finalists! The Poetry Out Loud New York State Final showcases students from across the state reciting great classic and contemporary poetry. Their performances are scored on criteria such as voice and articulation and dramatic appropriateness by judges from the literary world. The winner of this event will go on to represent New York at the national level, where they will be among students from the 55 states and U.S. territories competing for the title of National Poetry Out Loud Champion. Poetry Out Loud is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts and Poetry Foundation. In New York it is offered through the New York State Council on the Arts and Teachers & Writers Collaborative.

World Poetry Day 2021, March 21

 

As a part of the global celebration, the UNESCO Creative Cities of Literature, coordinated by the city of Granada (Spain), will undertake a joint celebration themed “Reconnecting People". World Poetry Day is the occasion to honour poets, revive oral traditions of poetry recitals, promote the reading, writing and teaching of poetry, foster the convergence between poetry and other arts such as theatre, dance, music and painting, and raise the visibility of poetry in the media.


As poetry continues to bring people together across continents, all are invited to join in.

FORUM: "Reconnecting People'' WORLD POETRY DAY 2021,

Where would you like to be reading this #WorldPoetryDay?



UNITED KINGDOM: To celebrate National Poetry Day, The British Museum are taking a look at the diverse world of poetry. In fact, this post alludes to the form of a haiku: 5 poems inspired by objects, 7 poems on objects, and 5 miscellaneous poetry-based nuggets from the Museum.

5 poems inspired by objects: You might have heard of John Keats being inspired by various Greek antiquities in the Museum to write his Ode on a Grecian Urn. Or that the statue of Ramesses II in Room 4 has an intimate connection with Shelley’s Ozymandias. It’s also a bit of an epic – so enjoy!

EXHIBIT: This Chinese painted scroll – ‘Reading in the Autumn Forest’ – transports us to the forest near Mount Baiyue (noe Mount Qiyun) in the east of China.

PALESTINE: By paying tribute to the men and women whose only instrument is free speech, who imagine and act, UNESCO recognizes in poetry its value as a symbol of the human spirit’s creativity.

World Poetry Day 2015, March 21st.

Всемирный день поэзии, 21 марта.

World Poetry Day, 21 March.

 Día Mundial de la Poesía, 21 de marzo.

 Journée mondiale de la poésie, 21 mars.

 世界诗歌日, 3月21日. 

 العالمي للشعر اليوم - 21 مارس اذار.

UNESCO Director-General's Message for the World Poetry Day 2015.

The poet John Burnside wrote:
“If what we insist on calling
fate seems inexplicable or cruel
it’s only because
we lack the imagination
to wish for what it brings,
to brighten it
with something more inventive
than dismay.”
This is the power of poetry. It is the power of imagination to brighten reality, to inspire our thoughts with something more inventive than dismay.
Poetry is the universal human song, expressing the aspiration of every woman and man to apprehend the world and share this understanding with others, through the arrangement of words in rhythm and meter. There may be nothing more delicate than a poem and, yet, it expresses all of the power of the human mind, and so there is nothing more resilient.
Poetry is as old as humanity itself, and as diverse -- embodied in traditions, oral and written, that are as varied as are the human face, each capturing the depth of emotions, thought and aspiration that guide every woman and men.
Poetry is intimate expression that opens doors to others, enriching the dialogue that catalyses all human progress, weaving cultures together and reminding all people of the destiny they hold in common. In this way, poetry is a fundamental expression of peace. In the words of Cherif Khaznadar, laureate of the UNESCO-Sharjah Prize for Arab Culture, “Knowledge of the other is the gateway to dialogue, and dialogue can only be established in difference and respect for difference.” Poetry is the ultimate expression of difference in dialogue, in the spirit of unity.
Every poem is unique but each reflects the universal in human experience, the aspiration for creativity that crosses all boundaries and borders, of time as well as space, in the constant affirmation of humanity as a single family.
This is the spirit of World Poetry Day, and this guides all of UNESCO’s work to strengthen humanity as a single community – by safeguarding poetic documentary heritage under the Memory of the World Programme, as well as humanity’s intangible heritage. This is embodied in the recent inscription of Al-Zajal on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. This traditional Lebanese poetry expression espouses tolerance and dialogue to resolve conflict and strengthen social cohesion.
In times of uncertainty and turbulence, perhaps never before have we needed the power of poetry to bring women and men together, to craft new forms of dialogue, to nurture the creativity all societies need today.

This is UNESCO’s message on World Poetry Day 2015.

Irina Bokova

 FORUM : 21 march is World Poetry Day

Classical Poets (Homer, Ovid, Lucan, Horace)

POETS CELEBRATED IN 2015

Akaki Tsereteli (Georgia)

100th anniversary of the death of Akaki Tsereteli, poet and writer (1840-1915)

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Andrés Bello López (Venezuela)

150th anniversary of the death of Andrés Bello Lopez, humanist (1781-1865)

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Nguyen Du (Viet Nam)

250th anniversary of the birth of Nguyen Du, poet (1765-1820)

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.

In celebrating World Poetry Day, March 21, UNESCO recognizes the unique ability of poetry to capture the creative spirit of the human mind.

A decision to proclaim 21 March as World Poetry Day was adopted during UNESCO’s 30th session held in Paris in 1999.One of the main objectives of the Day is to support linguistic diversity through poetic expression and to offer endangered languages the opportunity to be heard within their communities.

The observance of World Poetry Day is also meant 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, 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.




 Documents :

UNESCO's World Poetry Day 2015 Celebrations  
 UNESCO’s message on World Poetry Day 2015.
UNESCO Official Proclamation of 21 March as World Poetry Day in 1999
Discover more than 100 articles on the world poetry, published over the last sixty years!

World Poetry Day 2014, 21 March

UNESCO Director-General's Message on World Poety Day 2014.

Every year, UNESCO celebrates those who give life to poetry as one of the highest forms of linguistic and cultural expression. Poetry is a song of freedom, enabling us to affirm our identity through creation. Poetry is also the song of our deepest feelings; in the words of the Brazilian poet and diplomat João Cabral de Melo Neto, “even unintentionally, every word that comes from emotion is poetry”. Through its words and its rhythm, poetry gives shape to our dreams of peace, justice and dignity, and gives us the strength and desire to mobilize to make them real.
All peoples throughout history have developed and practiced forms of poetry, so as to pass on orally their knowledge, history and myths – the Vedas and Ramayana in India, the Hebrew Bible, the Iliad and the Odyssey in Greece and many other philosophical and religious texts – to express feelings, to talk about daily life, to withstand trials or to entertain. Today, contemporary forms of poetry, from graffiti to slam, enable young people to become engaged in the practice and renew it by opening the door to a new space for creation. The forms evolve, but the poetic impulse remains intact. Shakespeare described poetry as the music that each man carries inside himself and, centuries later, the jazz musician Herbie Hancock, UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador and 2014 Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry at Harvard University, has recalled the affinities between poetry, literature and music in his lecture on “the wisdom of Miles Davis”.
As a deep expression of the human mind and as a universal art, poetry is a tool for dialogue and rapprochement. The dissemination of poetry helps to promote dialogue among cultures and understanding between peoples because it gives access to the authentic expression of a language. We see this in the inspiration of people celebrating intangible cultural heritage, mother tongues and cultural diversity, where poetry always plays a major role. That is why UNESCO encourages and calls for the support of authors and translators, the craftspeople of poetry, so that we might tap into the essence of beauty and inspiration for peace in their works.

Irina Bokova

• Día Mundial de la Poesía, 21 de marzo
• Всемирный день поэзии, 21 марта
• Journée mondiale de la poésie, 21 mars
• 世界诗歌日, 3月21日 
• اليوم العالمي للشعر

UNESCO - Ms Irina Bokova on the Occasion of World Poetry Day 2013

Poetry is one of the purest expressions of linguistic freedom. It is a component of the identity of peoples and it embodies the creative energy of culture, for it can be continuously renewed.

This power of poetry is transmitted from generation to generation, in the hallowed texts of great authors and in the works of anonymous poets. We are duty bound to transmit this heritage – the legacy of Homer, Li Bai,  Tagore, Senghor and countless others – for it bears living witness to the cultural diversity of humanity. We, in turn, must tend it to bear fruit, as a source of linguistic wealth and dialogue.

In celebrating World Poetry Day, UNESCO wishes also to promote the values that poetry conveys, for poetry is a journey – not in a dream world, but often close to individual emotions, aspirations and hopes. Poetry gives form to the dreams of peoples and expresses their spirituality in the strongest terms --it emboldens all of us also to change the world.

Poets in all countries have bequeathed timeless verses in defence of human rights, gender equality and respect for cultural identities. Paul Eluard wrote “freedom ... I write thy name”

. To this day , poetry brings the winds of freedom and dignity in the struggle against violence and oppression. For all of these reasons, UNESCO supports poets and everyone who publishes, translates, prints or disseminates poetry. It does so by protecting the diversity of cultural expressions and by preserving poetry recitals listed as intangible cultural heritage of humanity , as many ways to embellish the world and construct the defences of peace in the minds of men and women.

Irina Bokova

UNESCO - Ms Irina Bokova on the Occasion of World Poetry Day 2013