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Position of WPM

The World Poetry Movement in response to the historical crisis

As in primitive times, a replica of which still survives in the world, and based, of course, on centuries of experience and planning, we continue to believe that the economy is the foundation of survival and human evolution on earth. Material and technological development, centuries later, has proven to be formidable. But contrary to the beginning, progress has not protected the entire human race, favoring only groups and individuals who have the power and capacity to decide on the uncertain future of all.

What has happened to natural solidarity, the poetics of origins and the intertwining of elements, replaced by callous selfishness, the cold absence of poetry in human society, and the subjugation and pillage of nature? Water, fire, air and land of Heraclitus: are they today the raw materials of a frayed project announced by a global company gone bankrupt?

The price we pay for this negligence is summarized in war and intensifying class struggle, the nearly definitive atomization of humanity and the possible destruction of Earth, to which we belong, source of our energy and our food, perpetual beginning our own lives.

What should be our historical priority at present time? Should we first save the bank or should we strive toward the protection of the human race and nature? Should the West's priority be to safeguard the bank’s gold, or to use all of it to protect the life of humans, in a new alliance with the Earth?

All it takes is a new world war to ruin centuries of human construction. Even one mistake, a misunderstanding, the insane stubbornness of a world power, a single button, can wipe the slate clean, but without a new chance to start over.

This means that against the blunders of power, the world community gains awareness, through poetry, of how we all share a common destiny as human beings on this planet.

To untangle this Gordian knot without cutting through it, we have to listen, beyond the voices of power. We must listen to the voices of the people, and also the words of poets and the works of artists, those who have been marginalized time and time again, because of their visionary perception, that is, full of memory and with energy and hunger for a new story.

Since ancient times, the history of poetry and art has reminded us, without fail, of how we have fatally neglected our human and natural roots. Have we had a physical evolution and cultural regression? Do we add a mass amount of cultural poverty to the indigence and material poverty of so many hundreds of millions of people worldwide?

The absence of a conscience and a poetic life should be taken as a qualitative indicator of poverty, deprivation and loss of cultural identity as well as consciousness of existence. The focus is on all geographical areas of the Earth who are deprived of a poetic life.

It's a new global culture based on the vigor of poetry and art, which may return humans to spiritual unity in diversity, to their natural sense of solidarity and justice, and restore their mutual embrace with the earth. Humanity can not survive its most difficult hour without knowing, understanding and inhabiting the world poetically.

Poetry is the creative spirit immersed in all the arts. Poetry tests the evolution of human spirit, imagination and sensitivity. But for it to act on humanity, we must expand its deep irradiation.

Poetry underlies all, existing in humans since their early childhood and it is necessary for it to surface once again in the consciousness and sensitivity of all.

When millions of people do not find meaning in their lives, the sum of poetry brings the sense of living back to them, not explicitly as in scientific programs of the academy, or repetitive messages in the media.

It is necessary to poeticize the world’s life, transforming human consciousness through the exercise of language and poetic experience, applied to different fields of thought and the many human activities.

The world is one, now more than ever. Poetry can and should contribute to the construction of world peace, the restoration of dialogue, the understanding between people, the reconciliation and reconstruction of contemporary society, the return of deep and renovating dialogue regarding nature, the outbreak of the creative powers of mankind. There is a need to understand the dialogue between poetry and philosophy as a way to reflect cultural differences, and this dialogue must be continued and further explored.

A gradual process advances, creating international poetry meetings, schools, workshops, publications and poetry circles, hundreds of thousands of projects to expand the language that breaks the siege of habit and that gathers millions of people, making the use of the Internet essential.

Similarly, the lack of cheap access to books drives millions of people to seek more advanced expressions of this thought-renewing, emotional language, in poetry festivals. Intercontinental poetry festivals must gain strength, to express the embrace and dialogue between poetic traditions and diverse cultures of the world.

New international poetry festivals and schools of poetry must be founded where none exist, to convey poetic knowledge to all individuals and peoples of the earth.

Developing the translation of poetry and texts used by poetry festivals in several directions, linked to the actions that produce material for education and cultural diffusion, must have our full support.

Under this ideal of educational poetic action, we have the construction of the World Poetry School, which will coordinate the overall process that gathers Poetry schools and teaching projects that include poetry and the arts worldwide. The World Poetry School (digital and multilingual), will reach all countries through advanced technological and pedagogical means to radiate the full experience and poetic knowledge in schools, colleges and universities worldwide.

Intercultural dialogue develops empathy for others and enriches cultural identities, because it encompasses many different expressive and creative ways to describe different perceptions of existence.

Understanding the diversity of life in its multiple forms is an omnipresent fact which should focus on a new link between everyday life and global circumstances that affect people. It is an opportunity to be heard by others and to participate in the development towards a poetic form of global governance.

There is growing desire in Latin America to transmit and learn the multiple meanings of poetry: poetry readings are held before thousands of people, demonstrating a high standard of poetic experiences. This large audience is not passive: these spectators assimilate and process poetic traditions and legends of the world within themselves, talking with the authors and creating a new atmosphere, a strong poetic power in the life of their cities. These processes must be strengthened to overcome cultural and material regression.

In Africa, poetry and music are deeply interwoven as they were at their origins, and the public actively participates in the festivals. Oral tradition marks the lives of people who need poetry, profoundly entrenched in the consciousness of their history and destiny.

Europe needs to listen and learn from these experiences to understand in depth what poetry can do for the world. Appreciating world poetry is a means to become sensitive to the pains and joys of humanity and to become a part of great solutions.

The World Poetry Movement is a non-governmental, non-profit organization founded in July 2011 in Medellin, which is its base. WPM is integrated for 220 international organizations and 1,235 poets from 134 countries from all continents, including 117 poetry festivals from around the world and 103 projects of poetry. Its job is to coordinate and bring effectiveness and permanence to the coalition of international and local projects on every continent, aiming towards a multicultural humanity, open to major changes.

We are a pluralistic organization that encompasses many traditions, styles and generations of poetry in the world. Their existence is the result of a historical conjunction of poetical projects worldwide, experiencing the urge to unite in order to enter the orbit of achievements with a global impact.

Our Movement wishes to articulate cultural rights in the global society, showing how poetry can contribute to the understanding of the need to provide public spaces for expression and the visibility of these experiences and these differences. Therefore, international poetry festivals, schools of poetry and other related projects based on dialogue should be promoted by the world community of nations.

Our organization is getting stronger. The European Union and progressive governments can politically recognize its existence and contribute financially to its development. For example, European projects in this area may include one or more partners in Latin America and other continents.

We believe that poetic actions that can contribute to the construction of a new humanism can be clearly and effectively defined by using the resources of communication and observing the spaces where the poet’s position is heard, as spiritual heritage that fights to be preserved and to safeguard the human species through the impact of constructive actions.

This sense of protecting the species, this dignity that poetry has claimed under the sun, this spiritual battle that poets have fought for centuries, is crystallized in congregational achievements, in global interventions that have an impact on the media, using advanced technologies available in a globalized economy of planetary regions, a world connected by the Internet and joined by systems of global coverage by satellite.

 

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