Poetry Day Ireland adopts ‘Message in a Bottle’ theme chosen by Evans

Poetry Day Ireland 2023 will take place on 27th April with this year’s theme, "Message in a Bottle", chosen by poet and curator of the day Martina Evans.

The organisers called the day an island-wide celebration of poetry that invites the nation to read, write, and share a poem. Everybody is  welcome but participation is particularly encouraged from artists, venues, schools, hospitals, community groups and poetry-lovers.

Evans’s choice of theme was inspired by the words of Paul Celan: “A poem can be a message in a bottle, sent out in the—not always greatly hopeful—belief that somewhere and sometime it could wash up on land, on heartland perhaps. Poems in this sense too are under way: they are making towards something.”

People are invited to draw inspiration from the theme, from the container and the information therein through to the ecology of the glass and even the paper a poem is written on. Issues of migration and the movement of both words and people will also feature, the organisers said, highlighting the efficiency with which poems can spread ideas and images.

Evans, the author of 12 books of poetry and prose, including the collection Now We Can Talk Openly About Men (Carcanet, 2018), which was shortlisted for the 2019 Irish Times Poetry Now Award, the Pigott Poetry Prize and the Roehampton Poetry Prize, said: “Paul Celan’s idea of a poem as a message in a bottle reminds us that no poem is an island—it needs a reader to complete the process. Poems are waiting for the reader to uncork the bottle and rediscover the poem, experience that intimate connection across oceans real and metaphorical.

“No special equipment is needed, only a willingness to participate and connect. A poem must be compact to float within the walls of its container yet the possibilities are miraculously endless. It’s a song but it can also tell a story or a joke, paint a picture, bring news, pass on wisdom, give shelter, advice or knowledge, travel time, praise, lament or incant. The reader just needs to open that bottle.”

Individuals and organisers can register their Poetry Day event from 2nd February on poetryireland.ie. Registration closes on 19th March. A small number of Bright Ideas bursaries will be available in the coming weeks to fund outside-the-box Poetry Day events and project ideas. Curated resources will be available for primary and secondary schools.