World Poetry Day — A Time to Celebrate

The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) declared March 21st World Poetry Day during its 30th conference in 1999.

This day of celebration honors the power of words to bring people together, preserve culture, and revive traditions of poetry recitals, readings, and teaching poetry.

Poetry Reflection

My great Aunt Hazel “Sophie” Gragg is the first poet I knew. She never published her writings or even shared her words beyond the church, but she is the first person I knew who wrote poetry and boldly stood in front of our small congregation in church and shared her moving, impactful words. I often think of her when I write.

I fell in love with Langston Hughes when I was seven years old. Rev. Ina Broomfield, a youth minister, taught me and other youth the poem, “I, Too.” I never forgot the words to the poem, and even as an adult, I often share with others the impact this poem had on my development as a Black person in America.

To Celebrate this day, I am sharing the four poems below.