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  • About Us
    • About NPD
    • Ambassadors
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    • Sponsors and Supporters
    • National Poetry Day Archive
  • Celebrate
    • How to celebrate National Poetry Day
    • Hot Poets: Haiku Futures
    • Schools
    • Libraries and Bookshops
    • Competitions
      • The Final Year Poetry Competition
  • Poems
    • Poems
    • NPD Anthologies
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    • Events Map
    • Submit your event
  • Resources
    • Teaching Resources & Posters
    • Learn about copyright from ALCS
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It takes just one poem...

National Poetry Day is the annual mass celebration on the first Thursday of October that encourages everyone to make, experience and share poetry with family and friends. Each year we come together because voices, words and stories help to bridge understanding in our community.

This year, National Poetry Day is on Thursday 5 October 2023.

The theme is Refuge.

Find out more

Get Involved

Find out ways you can celebrate National Poetry Day

 

Poems

Discover some classics on this year's theme: old and new

 

Events

Find and register National Poetry Day events near you

 

Resources

Free teaching resources to introduce poetry to your class

 

‘Finding a complicity with how you feel, expressed more elegantly than you could ever express yourself, can be the most helpful way of making sense of your emotions and helping you to process them.’

William Seighart, founder of National Poetry Day

Latest from the NPD blog

Refugee Action Podcast for NPD

New films for National Poetry Day 2023

Dean Atta’s Poem to Become Animated Short supported by the BFI

Nikita Gill: I took poetry into a prison and it changed the way I saw poetry forever

The Story of ‘This Is We’: Finding Refuge in Writing

National Poetry Day 2023 Media Release

Lemn Sissay is a National Poetry Day Ambassador

Julie Blake: Treat a Poem as a Poem on National Poetry Day

Matt Goodfellow: The Life-Changing Power of Poetry

MODRON: Poems on refuge in new magazine

Support Us

National Poetry Day is run by a very small charity, the Forward Arts Foundation, and we rely on our audiences' support to help us promote the best new poetry in all its forms. We strive toward a society in which everyone – regardless their cultural background, health status, gender, sexual identity, physical ability or economic status – can develop creativity and agency by making, experiencing and sharing poetry. If, like us, you believe poetry has the power to make positive change, please make a donation today.

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National Poetry Day is a Forward Arts Foundation initiative

The Forward Arts Foundation is a charity that enables all to enjoy, discover and share poetry. We champion excellence in poetry and grow audiences through National Poetry Day, the Forward Prizes for Poetry and annual Forward books. If you love poetry, show it by supporting us here.

Our Registered Charity Number is 1037939

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