Poetry lifts the veil from the hidden beauty of the world, and makes familiar objects be as if they were not familiar.—Percy Bysshe Shelley
Poetry is a form of literature that often celebrates abstraction and the beauty of words. Written poetry is thought to have surfaced about 2000 BCE with the Epic of Gilgamesh, although poetry likely predates literacy. Though the poetry of today has transformed in form and function, the root of its purpose can still be found in the desire of poets to explore the human condition through the power of imagery and metaphor. Poetry has become an underlying source of alleviation to much of humanity’s existential dilemmas, exhuming ideas from within.
(Read Howard Nemerov's Britannica essay on poetry.)
Poetry can push boundaries or employ personal experience to help understand the experience of many. It sheds light on the beautiful and the ugly and strives to understand the function of both. For these reasons and many others, poetry has been given its own holiday. World Poetry Day is held each year on March 21 to celebrate “the unique ability of poetry to capture the creative spirit of the human mind.” It was founded in 1999 by UNESCO in the hopes of promoting poetry as a way to communicate across borders and cultural differences. Since then, it has achieved just that. The event is celebrated around the world in readings and in ceremonies honoring poets of high achievement as well as in teaching the craft to aspiring writers. All in all, it is a day dedicated to poetry: an art form that has persisted for millennia and continues to enrich our understanding of the human condition to this day.