Every year on March 21, the International poetry daya genre that Unesco decided to proclaim it as “one of humanity’s most precious forms of expression, identity and linguistics” at its 30th General Conference in Paris in 1999.
“You have to put poetry in people’s lives,” said the writer Julio Cortazar, cataloged as one of the most relevant authors of world literature of the 20th century. And reason is not lacking. Many have been the writers and writers who over the centuries have found in the poetic genre a source of dreamlike, metaphorical expression and full of different realities.
Express a lot by saying very little because everything fits in one word. Transcend the inner world of each poet and at the same time of each reader who chooses to read a poem. That happens when poetry is read, when it is written, and even when it is recited. A genre with more than 4,000 years of historywhich today is more alive than ever thanks to the ‘boom’ of the “digital poetry”which includes a group of poets who use social networks to give voice to the poetry of the 21st century.
Why is World Poetry Day celebrated on March 21?
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) defines poetry as a form of expression full of common values that all humanity shares and in which a poem becomes a “catalyst for dialogue and peace”. That is why “with the aim to support linguistic diversity through poetic expression and promoting the visibility of those languages that are in danger” it was decided to pay tribute to this genre one day a year, specifically on March 21.
In addition, this day is also used to promote reading, writing and teaching poetry, with different tributes to poets. There is a clear relationship between poetry and the world of artslike theater, dance, music and painting for centuries, which is why this genre has come to be classified as “transversal” and fundamental throughout history.
The Gilgamesh poem, the first poem in history
It was between the years 2500-2000 a. C when it came to light first dated poem in history. On a clay tablet in ancient Sumer, what is now Iraq, the poem of Gilgamesh was engraved, some verses that talk about the adventures of the ancient king of Uruk, considered the first city in the world according to some historians. “Forget death and seek life!”, with this verse Gilgamesh speaks of transcendental themes about mortality and humanity, emanating the existential concerns that the king himself had about life at that time.
After this first poetic loophole in history, the verses of Pablo Neruda, Antonio Machado, Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, Federico García Lorca, Miguel Hernández, Rafael Alberti, Gloria Fuertes, Alejandra Pizarnik or Rosalía de Castroamong many others for understand poetry as a habitable genrea form of intimate expression that reveals the issues that most inhabit the interior of humans.
The digital poetry of the 21st century
Social networks have become a window to the world, a tree full of branches transformed into different possibilities of digital expression. this window looks at a digital, nomadic and young poetry that star different poets through platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. A few characters, an image or a video are enough to “write a poem” has changed the gesture of “take a piece of paper and a pen” and translate it into a book to “upload a post” and make poetry.
According to the ‘Digital 2022’ report released by the creative agency We are social and the leading social media management company Hootsuite, an estimated 4.62 billion people use social media, representing more than 58% of the total population. of the world. This would help to explain the phenomenon of birth of this digital poetry, the more users there are on social networks, the more possibilities are created to bring poetry closer to people, and therefore, more readers.
Poets like Elvira Sastre, Marwán, Sara Búho, Loreto Sesma or Escandar Algeet among many others fuel the genre of poetry through Instagram and Twitter. This generation of poets began to make themselves known through YouTube videos reciting their own poems, through Instagram posts writing their most intimate verses and making use of the 140 characters on Twitter to launch their verses to the world.
Source: Lasexta
Bruce is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment . He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
