World Poetry Day is celebrated every year on March 21. Its original inspiration belongs to the Greek poet Michael Mitras, who in the autumn of 1997 proposed to the Writers’ Association that the celebration of poetry be adopted in Greece, as in other countries, and that a specific day be designated for it.
His proposal arrived by letter in the hands of the poet and poetry scholar Costas Stergiopoulos, then president of the Writers’ Association. The poet Lydia Stefanou proposed as a day of celebration March 21, the day of the vernal equinox, which combines light on the one hand and darkness on the other, like poetry, which combines its bright face of optimism with the dark face of mourning. The first Poetry Day was celebrated in 1998 at the old post office in Kotzia Square. It was prepared with minimal expense and a lot of volunteer work, and was a great success. The following year, the writer Vasilis Vasilikos, Ambassador of Greece to UNESCO, proposed to the Executive Board of the organization that March 21 be declared World Poetry Day, just as June 21 is World Music Day. The French, Italians, Tunisians and other ambassadors from Mediterranean countries supported the proposal and the Greek proposal was voted in favor.
We celebrated this year’s world poetry day with our students honouring poets from our countries. We went near the school to Konstantinos Kavafis statue, very famous Greek poet and each one read a poet in his/her native language. Marina read “Legal Alien” by Pat Mora honouring her Mexican-American origin. Steffen read a poem from Rainer Maria Rilke honouring his German origin. Our teacher Nancy read the poem “Kemal” from Nikos Gatsos. Isabelle read the amazing poem “L’ennemi” honouring her French origin and Vasiliki read the Greek translation of it. Our teacher Rania read Nikos Souris’ poem “Who has seen a small state?”. Our director Mr.Kostas read Kavafis’ poem “Posidoniate”. Andreas created his own poem -with chat gpt’s help- expressing his love for Greece “Ode to Greece”
