Message by the Director-General of UNESCO on the occasion of World Poetry Day, 21 March 2003 -- Koïchiro Matsuura

Delivered by Mr. J. Kyazze, UNESCO Representative to the United Nations

"Poetry is human language reduced to its essential rhythm," said Mallarmé. Poetry is indeed a language that delves deep into the human soul and expresses the mysterious meaning of existence. As the highest expression of a language, it should occupy a special place in our lives.

Language, with its distinctive rhythms and music, the interplay of words and their many meanings, is the raw material of all poetry. Fables, myths and legends, heroic deeds and tales have been passed on, at first orally and then by way of a variety of writing systems, since the dawn of humanity. For each community, language is a badge of identity and a means of discovering the world, and also one of the main vectors of cultural diversity.

Poetry is a major cultural factor, a total language that constitutes the expression of a deep-seated desire to live with others and hence an essential instrument for bringing peoples closer together. It is a reflection and mirror of communities and the foremost vehicle for self-affirmation, but it is also a decisive lever in creativity, progress and, shared development.

Poetry therefore helps us to live together. It is essential to intercultural dialogue and harmonious interaction among the different communities of the world. Encouraging its creation, its dissemination, and its translation is another way of promoting cultural diversity, a vital source of inspiration conveyed by the living unity of poets through the myriad facets of their creativity.

Today, 21 March, World Poetry Day, I invite Member States, associations, and each and every individual to celebrate poetry and to reflect on the fundamental role it plays in intercultural dialogue, a pledge of peace.

Opening Remarks for Dialogue through Poetry 2003
by Pat Duffy

Let me begin by saying how thrilled I am to see all of you here this evening at the New York City reading for the third annual Dialogue through Poetry sponsored by Rattapallax Magazine and Baruch College Performing Arts Center. Dialogue through Poetry also shares this week with and honors UNESCO World Poetry Day and the start of the UN Decade for Literacy. Your presence here this evening makes you part of a historic cultural event celebrating poetry all across the world-Dialogue through Poetry readings will be taking place in literary venues from this auditorium in New York City, to Valpajo Chile, to Moscow, to London, to Paris, to Belgrade, where poets will gather to speak the language of poetry and to celebrate the special power and beauty of that language. In marking UNESCO World Poetry Day and the first Dialogue through Poetry event back in 2001, Harri Holkeri the President of the United Nations General Assembly that year said, "Poets are our cultural clairvoyants and porte-paroles of truth. Poetry is one of the most powerful ways of expressing both individual experiences and the experiences and values of whole nations… It is also a way of achieving better understanding of our differences - understanding that cultural diversity is richness and not a threat."

This evening, we will be celebrating the rich diversity of visions expressed through written words. Some of our best and most respected contemporary poets will be reading their work to us tonight. And we'll also hear from some of the new generation of poets on the scene, the winners of the New York City high school 'World Poetry Day' contest, who will be reading their prize-winning poems to us this evening. With these prizes, we hope our younger writers will be encouraged to continue refining and developing their use of language - because it is in the evolved use of language that we can uncover meaning in our daily activities-and it is the evolved use of language, in the sensitive use of words, that we can also uncover the hope for peace. Ultimately, whether or not we survive together on this planet -- in all our magnificent diversity - will depend on our ability to use words and not weapons. Is there a connection between poetry and the quest for peace? What can our everyday dialogue learn from poetry, that most refined use of language-poetry? Unlike many of our every day dialogues, Poetry always knows just the right pattern of words to say to send its message. Poetry always knows just when to speak and just when to be silent-just when to repeat a phrase and just when to say it only one time. If we could only learn from poetry's exquisite sensitivity to language -- and apply even a little of that sensitivity to our everyday dialogues with one another - -knowing just the right pattern of words to say -- knowing just when to speak, just when to be silent -- just when to repeat a phrase and just when to say it only one time-if we could learn from poetry's deep understanding of the use of language -- perhaps there would be hope for our personal relationships to survive better and longer and more peacefully-and perhaps there would be hope for the relations among nations of the world to survive better and longer and more peacefully.

The poems you will hear tonight represent a diversity of styles and visions as they speak with the voice of the creative self, the literary voice, which the writer Alice McDermott once called, "the voice of the beauty of the world."

Katarzyna Kozanecka received First Prize ($300.00) in the World Poetry Day competition for "on the outskirts." Teacher: Eric Grossman from Stuyvesant HS, New York.

Mohammed Abbasi received 2nd Prize ($200.00) in the World Poetry Day competition for "War Season." Teacher: Dr. Sylvia Weinberger from Brooklyn Technical High School, Brookyn.

Arianna C. Freyre received Honorable Mention in the World Poetry Day competition for your entry "Oppression." Teacher: Myron Moskowitz from Townsend Harris High School, Flushing. Melissa Kimiadi received an Honorable Mention in the World Poetry Day competition for your entry "Sunday's Best." Teacher: Dr. Sylvia Weinberger from Brooklyn Technical High School, Brookyn. Marianne Lebedinskaya received an Honorable Mention in our World Poetry Day competition for your entry "After the War: Land at Last." Teacher: Maria Buccellato from John Dewey High School, Brooklyn. Alice Chan received an Honorable Mention in our World Poetry Day competition for your entry "may you forgive me." Teacher: Eric Grossman from Stuyvesant HS, New York

on the outskirts

a khaki convoy nearing
and farthering away.
stirring crows to wing,
kicking up mud in flecks
against the house-wall
on which hangs a poster
for a film; the house-wall
around whose corner a dog
hangs by the throat.
its snowed coast thawing,
its snowed coast thawing.
the film is przed-wiosna,
before-spring.
maybe in west in west west.
i've no eyes for it.
my winter's longer than that world's
by an arm of rope.

Katarzyna Kozanecka

War Season

The harvest season has arrived
A struggle begins
The women are restless
The workingmen are gone
The people impoverished

They come to gather fruits
Which are overripe
The aroma of rotting melons
And the tainted grapes
They smell of sour juice

The one full-grown fruits
That nourished thousands
All through the bleak winters
Have become bitter and vicious

The beautiful colors of
Red, sweet apples
Purple, juicy grapes
Green, immense watermelons
Have transformed

The lush, moist and newly picked fruits
Sit on the cold floor
Black, hard and ugly
The scene is dark
The grapple has overcome the grain

Mohammed Abbasi

Spring Poetry Festival: Each May, for the past 30 years, City College hosts an Annual Spring Poetry Festival, an event that over the years has attracted approximately 10,000 elementary school children, an equal number of New York high school students, and thousands from the college and neighboring community. This Festival is the celebratory event of City College's Poetry Outreach Center. Festival Day at CCNY's Aaron Davis Hall to read their poems and listen to their contemporaries. This event is the culmination of a year-long series of activities meant to encourage the act of writing poetry among the broadest range of people. This is a contest that inspires literally over 3000 poetry entries from over 60 high schools in all five boroughs. The winners read their prize-winning poems and then receive prizes from the featured guest poet, including signed copies of the poet's books. The list of honored guests reads very much like a Who's Who of American Poetry: Muriel Rukeyser, Adrienne Rich, Gwendolyn Brooks, Jane Cortez, Donald Hall, Allen Ginsberg, Robert Creeley, Galway Kinnell, Sonia Sanchez and Amiri Baraka have been but a few of our past featured poets. Next, various persons read--college students, professionals and amateurs, including visiting writers from Europe and Latin America. Poets currently teaching at the college participate as do distinguished alumni and past faculty. Six months after the Festival we publish Poetry in Performance, a commemorative book that contains one poem by each reader.