World Poetry Day
I was grazing the web as I am wont to do and found the blog for the Centre of Alternative Energy over the water in Wales. It was here that I learnt that World Poetry Day had completely passed me by without notice – apparently it is on March 21st and has been for some years now,
World Poetry Day was declared by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in 1999 “to promote the reading, writing, publishing and teaching of poetry throughout the world” identified as “the unrestricted pursuit of truth” – and presumably the enjoying of poetry throughout the world.
Well, it managed to happen again this year without any of my help because I have only just learnt of it. I did however find an enjoy a lovely post about it over on the CAT blog and I so enjoyed this particular offering that I am going to copy it here –
Less is More, was written by Matt Harvey; poet, writer, broadcaster and Wondermentalist, inspired by the Schumacher conference of the same title:
Can less be more, can more be less?
Well, yes and no, and no and yes
Well, more or less…
More bikes, fewer cars
Less haze, more stars
Less haste, more time
Less reason, more rhyme
More time, less stress
Fewer miles, more fresh (vegetables)
Fewer car parks, more acres of available urban soil
More farmers’ markets, less produce effectively marinated in crude oil
Less colouring, more taste
More mashing, less waste
Fewer couch potatoes, more spring greens
Fewer tired tomatoes, more runner beans
More stillness, less inertia
Less illness, more Echinacea
More community, less isolation
Less just sitting there, more participation!
More wells (not oil ones, obviously), fewer ills
Fewer clean fingernails, more skills
More co-operation, less compliancy
Less complacency, more self-reliancy
Less competition, more collaboration
Less passive listening, more participation!
Less attention defic…, more concentration
Less passive listening, more participation!
(Less repetition)
Less of a warm globe, more a chilly’un
More of a wise world, at least 34 fewer parts of C02 per million
Less stress-related cardio-vascular and pulmonary failure
More nurturing quality time in the company of a favourite clematis or dahlia
More craftsmanship, less built-in obsolescence
More political maturity, less apparently-consequence-free extended adolescence
More believed-to-be-beautiful, known-to-be-useful things
Less cheap, pointless, petroleum-steeped stuff
So Yes, less is more – and enough’s enough…