In preparation for the journey to London to the XXX Olympic Summer Games, (26 days to go, folks) you can celebrate Olympic Day, this Saturday, and also celebrate poetry as well.
This post is a self-confidence-boosting-blog intended to make you feel better as you watch the Olympics on the couch this summer, while the Doritos are slowly losing their flavor in your mouth as you sit up a little straighter to watch the streamlined little divers from China fall in perfect somersaults toward the pool. It’s okay: English romantic poet Percy Shelley couldn’t even swim.
However, what you can do to get active and celebrate one of the oldest and most televised worldwide competitions in history is to celebrate Olympic Day this Saturday.
“On 23 June, Olympic Day is celebrated all around the world: hundreds of thousands of people – young and old – get moving and participate in sporting and cultural activities, such as runs, exhibitions, music and educational seminars. Over the last two decades, the event has helped to spread the Olympic ideals to every corner of the world” (Olympic Day).
On Olympic Day, help organize a neighborhood frisbee game in honor of the Olympics, and afterwards, you could read the winning team a victory poem like this one from Greek poet Pindar, who often wrote about the Olympics. Here’s an excerpt from one of his poems:
“I will be small among the small,
great among the great.
The spirit embracing me
from moment to moment I will cultivate,
as I can and as I ought.
And if the gods bestow
abundant wealth on me, then I will hope
to find high glory in days to come. . . “
–Pindar’s “Pythian Three“
Why don’t you try coming up with your own Olympic poem and send it to me at dpope@thetelegraph.com for a chance to be published in the Alton newspaper, The Telegraph.
For the Words.
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