A universal poem for everyone and for all time

‘Breathe in experience, breathe-out poetry,’ says American poet and activist Muriel Rukeyser.

As a university student discovering Spanish literature, I was fascinated by poetry, its emotions and its images. But I never craved writing it. A three-verse poem looks short and sweet yet constructing it is intricate, delicate work. Each word must be precise and laden with meaning.

“Art is never finished, only abandoned,” as the famous saying by Leonardo Da Vinci goes. There is some truth in that because art is not about perfection, it can never really be. It’s about expression, and everyone has something to share, even you, even me. A new project by Poetas, Spain, a partner on the Versopolis Festival Platform in which Cypriot organisation Ideogramma is also a partner, is inviting people around the world to join a never-ending poem.

The Universal Poem has a beginning but no end. Poets, writers and anyone who wants to take part are invited to write a short 70-character verse and add it to this infinite, virtual poem. The project started on December 30, 2020, and since then 10,506 poets have taken part.

As writers from every corner of the world participate, the poem includes verses from all languages, Arabic, Portuguese, English, Spanish and the list goes on. There are no rules besides staying within the 70 letter word count. Simply write one verse that represents you, use your language, whichever one that is and add your pebble on www.universalpoem.com

“Let’s write a poem forever,” say the organisers in an explanatory YouTube video, “that can keep on being written by all human beings who are yet to be born.” The poem aims to stay accessible indefinitely, for generations and generations to add to it yet the project wants to go beyond its virtual aspect in the future.

Public intervention will be organised, such as public screenings of the poems as well as collaborations with schools and libraries for a more pedagogical component. Whether these will happen around the world or just in Spain is still not defined but, in any case, until then every person on earth can be part of a poem that doesn’t end.