An offering for World Poetry Day

Today, March 21, is World Poetry Day. Organized by UNESCO (my former employer) every year since 1999, this 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.”

A great idea, don’t you think?

To commemorate the occasion, I spent a bit of time this morning revisiting some of my favorites. As always, I lingered over “Como Tú” (Like You), by the Salvadoran writer and activist Roque Dalton. I discovered his work in a post-colonial literature class in college, and it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that this is probably my favorite poem of all time. The English translation by Jack Hirschman is exquisite.

But of course I would be remiss if I didn’t present an offering of my own. It’s a small attempt to put into words what poetry has come to mean to me, signed off with a wish that the beauty of words is always abundant in all of our lives. I hope it speaks to you!

THESE WORDS OF MINE

These words of mine,
Capriciously tender or fierce or tentative or reverent,
Whether steeped in nostalgia or newly bubbling,
Tumble out of me sometimes.
In this my secret garden,
The flowering is that of reconciliation
Between senses and sentiments, 
Dreams and waking thoughts.
Never predestined but always rendered
As if in a force field, compelled by a voice that whispers:
Take a pen. Write it down. Fuel it up and cast it into the wide open seas.
May it find there a generous home,
Even if on distant shores,
That it may meet with someone who once felt a little bit the same, 
Who marveled at the effervescence of magnolia bursting in early spring,
Or whose bones also hold the twin weights of grief and gratitude, 
Someone who also feasts on vernal delights and dances on moonlit equinox nights, 
Singing love songs, but also sad songs, in fact life songs,
Poetry of my heart. 

- Ramya Vivekanandan, March 21, 2024