Visitors view exhibits at Vietnamese Poetry Day 2024. VNA/VNS Photo Thanh Tùng

NINH BÌNH Vietnamese Poetry Day 2025 will take place in the ancient capital city of Hoa Lư in the northern province of Ninh Bình on February 12.

According to the president of the Vietnam Writers' Association, Nguyễn Quang Thiều, the 23rd Vietnamese Poetry Day is taking place as the country celebrates the 95th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of Việt Nam and ahead of President Hồ Chí Minh's 135th birthday (May 19, 1890), and the 50th anniversary of national reunification (April 30).

The organising committee has therefore chosen the theme Tổ Quốc Bay Lên (The Homeland Soars), inspired by the poem Dáng Đứng Việt Nam (The Stance of Việt Nam) by poet and war martyr Lê Anh Xuân.

This is the first time that the event will be held outside the Temple of Literature in central Hà Nội.

Thiều said that this relocation is an association policy aimed at bringing the national Poetry Day closer to the public all across the country.

"Poetry Day may be held in different localities in the following years, depending on the theme for that year," he said.

The highlight of Vietnamese Poetry Day 2025 will be the poetry night The Homeland Soars at the Phạm Thị Trân Theatre on February 12. The programme will feature poets from the anti-American war in Việt Nam, those from the post-unification period (1975) to the early years of the 1990's, as well as young poets from 2001 to the present.

The programme will also present songs adapted from Vietnamese popular poems, such as Đường Chúng Ta Đi (The Road We Advance) and Tổ Quốc Gọi Tên Mình (The Homeland Calls Our Names). Notably, this year's event will feature American veteran poet Bruce Weigl, who will present a poem dedicated to a Vietnamese mother.

The Vietnam Writers' Association will hold a seminar titled The Responsibility and Aspirations of Poets to discuss the role of poem writers, the desire to explore and conquer artistic horizons, and the responsibilities they hold as citizens. Through their work, poets must express their patriotism and the progress of humanity around the world.

An exhibition at Vietnamese Poetry Day will show posters of 20 prominent Vietnamese poets who have received the Hồ Chí Minh Prize for Literature and Art. There will also be displays of classical and modern poems about the Ninh Bình region. VNS