Preceded and with the support and experience of the schools of poetry  of Viena, Medellín, Tabasco and La Habana, The International Poetry Festival of Buenos Aires launches the second edition of its school of poetry. The workshops will take place during the eight version of the festival, May, 3-8, 2013.

The aims of the School of Poetry are to examine poetry from different perspectives and try to answer those simple but complex questions: What’s poetry? What to do with a volume of poems? From where does a poem come?  What’s poetry’s use? How does a poem affect its reader?

Through these academic non-formal activities conducted by some of the writers attending the festival, we wish to show the creative possibilities of the word. Stimulating a reflection
on those questions mentioned before, so that the doors of poetry which are closed to many can generously open. Our effort is to deny that commonplace stated by many that think that poetry is only for the chosen and “learned”.  

And if poetry is everywhere, waiting to be discovered? What?

Olmedo Herrera, a Mexican kid, 10 years old, wrote: “Poetry is boring and is only practiced by poets.” Another kid said that “poetry is a bunch of strange words written down, vertically.”

Many in daily life avoid reading poetry because it is a demanding task and it may not comfort the reader due to its discovery of so many painful truths. For so many it may even be convenient to take distance from that which may open their eyes to the troubles of the world.

Poetry is important for those who attend public libraries, for the teachers who would like others to read, for the parents who at the bedside read their children to sleep, for those who want to listen to the music of the world in a seashell, where the sound of the poem echoes, as Octavio Paz said.

For all of them we have organized this second edition of the School of Poetry, in the wish that all may discover the energy of poetry.

We want to help all to understand the power of words and their richness. Work in such fields as contemplation, meditation, thought and dreams. Trying to give a meaning to what is of importance to the self. Understanding words like beauty or sorrow, which shall be illuminated, and their essence rediscovered by poetry.