A poetry marathon featuring around 70 poets is taking place on Oxford Street today to mark National Poetry Day and its ‘wonder’ theme.
The day-long event is being held at the Poetry Pharmacy from 10am to 9pm, with poets reading in their mother tongues and English.
It was initially planned as an attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the most languages used in a reading relay – the current record is 65 languages, set in Brussels in 2023.
Deborah Alma, founder and director of the Poetry Pharmacy, said: “London is such an extraordinarily multicultural and multilingual city, and it felt like a lovely way of celebrating that.
“We wanted to fill the Poetry Pharmacy with the sound of poetry in the languages people actually speak, think, dream and write in.”
The event does not follow the exact Guinness format and organisers do not expect to reach 65 languages, but decided to maintain the theme of the event after falling in love with the idea.
Poet Sadhbh Adamea, who travelled from Ireland to take part, said: “The topic of wonder was incredibly fitting, as it was a miracle for me to be there, given that one week ago I didn’t even have a passport to make my travels from Ireland to London.
“To recite words in my mother tongue (German) was a challenge and felt even more vulnerable than sharing my heartfelt words in English.”
Alma summarised the sentiment of the event by saying it set out to remind us that poetry belongs to everyone.
Featured image credit: Poetry Pharmacy
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