Message for World Poetry Day.

Poetry has a thousand faces and always springs 

from the depths of the culture of peoples. The 

United Nations Educational, Scientific and 

Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has long 

supported the work of poets, publishers and 

teachers worldwide. This year, once again, on the

 occasion of World Poetry Day, UNESCO wishes 

to highlight the artistic importance and the power 

of poetry in encouraging people to read and in creating one of 

humanity’s most authentic and dynamic art forms.

Poets convey a timeless message. They are often key witness to 

history’s great political and social changes. Their writings inspire us 

to build lasting peace in our minds, to rethink relations between man 

and nature and to establish humanism founded on the uniqueness 

and diversity of peoples. This is a difficult task, requiring the 

participation of all, whether in schools, libraries or cultural institutions. 

To quote the poet Tagore, the 150th anniversary of whose birth will be 

celebrated this year, “I have spent my days in stringing and unstringing 

my instrument”.

It is important to understand the strong ties between poetry and all of 

the arts and techniques on which people draw to make sense of the 

world. Mallarmé used to say that poetry was the “expression, in human 

language restored to its essential rhythm, of the mysterious meaning of 

the aspects of existence”. Poetry is not merely a means of 

communicating or transmitting information, for, as poets work constantly 

on the language, poetry also enlivens human discourse and always 

reveals the original brilliance of culture. UNESCO therefore sees the 

defence of freedom of expression and information, on one hand, and 

the promotion of poetry, on the other, as two indissociable components 

of its mandate for peace. As poetry reaches deeply into the innermost 

efforts of men and women to create and reflect, it has the capacity to 

sustain dialogue amid the diversity of human expression.

UNESCO undertakes to ensure, under its various programmes, that 

poetry is more widely published, translated and disseminated. In the 

same way as Jason entrusted Orpheus with the task of surmounting 

obstacles that could not be overcome through physical strength or 

warfare, so too shall we need poetry for a long time in order to build 

peace in the minds of men and women.

Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO

Message for World Poetry Day

21 March 2011