International Poetry Day 2024: Six ways to celebrate the magic of poetry

UNESCO declared March 21 as the World Poetry Day in 1999 to celebrate the joy and beauty of poetry calling it ldquohumanityrsquos purest and most generous form of artistic expressionrdquo Wersquove curated a list of easytofollow prompts for all poets and poetry lovers in Mumbai1 Set up an IG Live reading If you have a collection of poems saved on your laptop or buried in the back pages of your notebook open Instagram live and read them out to your friends You can also ask some of them to join in and share a poem or two Alternatively you could experiment with reels and upload a short poemYoung poets scribble poems together at a Bandra cafe2 Spin a yarn with friends on ThreadsX Write the first line of a new poem as a thread post or a tweet and ask your friends to build the poem from there Ultimately yoursquoll have a long collaborative poem that you and your friends would have lsquothreadedrsquo together The two platforms mdash X and Threads mdash are ideal for such collaborations because they allow others to continue where you left Give the game a fun hashtag3 Listen to a poetry podcast It might be time to listen to that poetry podcast you had saved months ago You can also create a cool Spotify playlist for your friends by adding readings from your favourite poets If you want to make it more fun curate a playlist of your favourite poetry videos or films invite a few friends over and cast them on TV The World Poetry Festivalrsquos YouTube channel has a 24hour marathon running as well and poets from across the world are reading their poems stream itPair your read with chai and snacks Pic CourtesyBombay Poetry Crawl4 Write a poem beginning with ldquoI believerdquo If you havenrsquot had a moment to sit and write a poem in a while today is the best day to do it Write on your commute back home or on your way to work on your morning walk your coffee break or at midnight before you hit the bed Begin your poem with the phrase ldquoI believerdquo Where would you take the poem What makes you feel surefooted What keeps you going every day5 Organise a reading in a park Parks and public gardens are ideal spaces to come together and read poems away from the burden of work at home or in the office Step out with your friends and read poems Itrsquos a great way to spread the joy of poetry with strangers out for their evening strolls too 6 Buy a poetry book from a local store If you want to do none of the above and just read a magical book of poems walk into a local bookstore pick up a collection of poems you havenrsquot heard of or have been meaning to read for a while Alternatively borrow a book from a friend If you havenrsquot met them in a while gift them one Turn it into a sweet book exchangeBONUS TIP Submit to a journal or sign up for a poetry reading Have you been wanting to do this Sharpen your pencils make those final edits and get goingHowl on canvas in a Colaba art spaceIF you are looking for a touch of visual poetry to go with verse drop by this exhibition at APRE Art House that brings together the works of TS Eliot and Allen Ginsberg in the visual context of artworks by nine artists ldquoTitled Measuring Life With Coffee Spoons the exhibition is inspired by two key works namely Eliotrsquos The Love Song of Alfred J Prufrock and Ginsbergrsquos Howlrdquo says gallerist and curator Prerna Jain These works will also be viewed in accompaniment with a few verses recited from the poems she notes For one of the artists Megha Joshi both Eliot and Ginsberg have been part of her years growing up ldquoI quote him Eliot quite often While the two are extremely different in terms of style they have the commonality of angst ennui that speaks to the modern situationrdquo Describing her work as something that evokes the general feeling conveyed through these poems she notes ldquoIt is an attempt by artists to use the language of these works to express their frustrations with the worldrdquoFrom Today 6 pm onwardsAt APRE Art House Sanghvi House ColabaCall 8169458870 Shriram IyengarThe Guidersquos top poetry collectionsgtgt Three Women in a SingleRoom House by K Srilatagtgt Varavara Rao A Life in Poetry translated by N Venugopal amp Meena Kandasamygtgt Icelight by Ranjit Hoskotegtgt The White Shirts of Summer by Mamang Daigtgt My Invented Land by Robin Ngangomgtgt Wild Women by Arundhathi Subramaniam