World Poetry Day (21 March each year) celebrates and promotes the reading, writing, publishing and teaching of poetry worldwide. The day was declared an official observance day by UNESCO in 1999. But as many countries already had established traditional National Poetry Day’s around October time, this worldwide celebration receives very little publicity in those countries, including the UK. (National Poetry Day is Thursday 4 October 2018 in UK and the theme is Change). I say, the more poetry days, the merrier.
“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.” (UNESCO website)
You could celebrate World Poetry Day in your school by learning about poems from different cultures, including from pupils’ own cultures. Or investigate different forms of poem, such as the Japanese Haiku or the Arabic Ruba’i.
Here are some teaching resources online that you may find useful:
- How to Make a Haiku from the Jal Foundation and PDF version
- How to Make a Poetry Friendly Classroom
- More information on the event from global dimension and Global Learning in Poetry kit
- TES Connect Poetry resources
- Young Poets Network has ideas and competitions that young people can enter
Bernard Young Poet 