World Poetry Day is celebrated annually on 21st March.
It was adopted by UNESCO in 1999 in recognition of the ability of poetry to capture the creative spirit of the human mind.
The day aims to encourage poetry in its many forms and languages throughout the world.
Poetry has been a method of self-expression since ancient times.
Today, poetry has a vibrant, diverse, and dynamic worldwide community — expressing opinions, telling stories, asking important questions.
Meet 11-year-old Bindi. She's not really into maths but LOVES art class and playing hockey. Her absolute FAVOURITE thing is adventuring outside with friends or her horse, Nell. Bindi is a verse novel for mid-upper primary students. Written ‘for those who plant trees’, Bindi explores climate, bushfires, and healing. Written from the point of view of 11-year-old, Bindi and her friends on Gundungurra Country.
Daphne is unbearably sad and adrift. She feels the painful loss of her father acutely and seeks solace both in the security of her local library and the escape her phone screen provides by blocking out the world around her. As Daphne tries to make sense of what has happened she recalls memories of shared times and stories past, and in facing the darkness she finds a way back from the tangle of fear and confusion, to feel connected once more with her friends and family.
A powerful novel in verse about a boy who is wrongfully incarcerated. Amal Shahid has always been an artist and a poet. But even in a diverse art school, he's seen as disruptive and unmotivated by a biased system. Then one fateful night, an altercation in a gentrifying neighborhood escalates into tragedy. "Boys just being boys" turns out to be true only when those boys are white. Suddenly, at just sixteen years old, Amal's bright future is upended: he is convicted of a crime he didn't commit and sent to prison. Despair and rage almost sink him until he turns to the refuge of his words, his art. This never should have been his story. But can he change it...
With surprising honesty and words that resonate long after reading, A Hurricane in My Head tackles the themes of friendship, bullying, technology and the life of a modern teenager. These poems say the things we can't always put into words, they may make you laugh, they may make you cry, but they will most definitely make you reminisce, escape, discover.
Xiomara Batista feels unheard and unable to hide in her Harlem neighborhood. Ever since her body grew into curves, she has learned to let her fists and her fierceness do the talking. But Xiomara has plenty she wants to say, and she pours all her frustration and passion onto the pages of a leather notebook, reciting the words to herself like prayers - especially after she catches feelings for a boy in her bio class named Aman, who her family can never know about. With Mami's determination to force her daughter to obey the laws of the church, Xiomara understands that her thoughts are best kept to herself. So when she is invited to join her school's slam poetry club, she doesn't know how she could ever attend without her mami finding out. But she still can't stop thinking about performing her poems.
An innovative collection of poetry and prose from a vibrant new Indigenous voice on the Australian literary scene. Dropbear interrogates the complexities of colonial and personal history with an alternately playful, tender and mournful intertextual voice, deftly navigating the responsibilities that gather from sovereign country, the spectres of memory and the debris of settler-coloniality. This innovative mix of poetry and essay offers an eloquent witness to the entangled present, an uncompromising provocation of history, and an embattled but redemptive hope for a decolonial future.
How do you write poetry? Its̕ a question with as many answers as there are poets. Now, in this unprecedented volume, thirty-two internationally renowned poets provide words of wisdom and inspiring examples of their own work for new poets everywhere. Compiled by anthologist extraordinaire Paul B. Janeczko, this outstanding resource offers a fascinating spectrum of advice from those who know best - ranging from "break a few rules" to "read Shakespeares̕ sonnets in the bathroom" to "revise each poem at least thirty-two times." Not surprisingly, the most frequently made suggestion from these seasoned poets is simply to "read, read, read!".
In this beautiful collection of poems for children, award-winning author and poet, Libby Hathorn, has brought together favourites such as those by A.B. 'Banjo' Paterson, Dorothea Mackellar and C.J. Dennis, as well as more contemporary poems by Steven Herrick, Eva Johnson, Les A. Murray and others. Exquisite illustrations by Cassandra Allan make this a collection to treasure.
Kirli Saunders debut poetry collection is a pleasure to lose yourself in. Kirli has a keen eye for observation, humour and big themes that surround Love/Connection/Loss in an engaging style, complemented by evocative and poignant imagery. It talks to identity, culture, community and the role of Earth as healer. Kindred has the ability to grab hold of the personal in the universal and reflect this back to the reader.
These poems speak of the world that is, and sing for a world that may one day be. On a daylight street in Minneapolis Minnesota, a Black man is asphyxiated - by callous knee of an officer, by cruel might of state, and under crushing weight of colony. In Melbourne the body of another woman has been found - this time, after catching a late tram home.The virus arrives, and the virus thrives. Authorities seal the public housing towers up, and truck in one cop to every five residents. Notre Dame is ablaze - the cathedral spire blackened, and teetering.
Want to write your own poem, but not sure where to start?
Have a look at these writing prompts by teen poet Solli Raphael.