Celebrating World Poetry Day with poem by NI woman

It was founded in 1999 "with the aim of supporting linguistic diversity through poetic expression".

The theme for World Poetry Day 2023 is “Always be a poet, even in prose.”

This famous line of verse by French poet Charles Baudelaire emphasises the importance of creativity and beauty in all forms of writing, not just poetry.

For many during the recent pandemic, poetry – either reading or writing it – provided a solace amidst the maelstrom of events; poems like ‘Everything Is Going to Be All Right’ by the late, Belfast-born poet Derek Mahon, which offers reassurance and the promise that the ‘sun rises in spite of everything’.

Northern Ireland’s has, of course, produced a plethora of world-famous poets, from Seamus Heaney to John Hewitt, Michael Longley to Sinead Morrissey and Ciaran Carson to Padraic Fiacc.

And, there are other unpublished writers, like Belfast woman, Lorna Foley, who write poetry for the sheer pleasure it gives them. And, so, in honour of World Poetry Day, we bring you a Spring poem from Lorna, a former schoolteacher, entitled ‘One Daffodil’.

One daffodil, only one

in the shelter of an old wall stopped me.

Dozens and dozens

all bunched up

in unremarkable buckets I barely noticed as I shopped.

Mystery in that bloom

Beside the wall alone

Symbol of creativity

Birth flower for March.

But remembered from a long lost book

it is toxic to humans, dogs and cats

will kill other flowers

poisoning the water.

Looked askance at the solitary bloom

enjoying its own company

a rogue assassin maybe