I welcome you under this poetic cloud, which the authors have titled “The lightness of poetry”.

I assure you that with the word “lightness”, the depth of the poem is not questioned, but that spiritual feeling, which gives us wings, which climbs us to other dimensions. A feeling that only poetry can create, so deep that it reveals the depths of the soul and so light that it keeps us suspended in the sky.

As Thomas Eliot said “poetry communicates before it is understood”.

The promotion of this installation, – for which I thank the artist Ergys Krisiko who took this idea and adapted it precisely to the premises of a state institution, “relieving” it from the “shadow” that usually covers these buildings, but also as an invitation to young people, who have an idea and want to share it, – we had thought of it as a separate event, but maybe it wouldn’t have been fair, that the spectators her first were precisely poets or people of letters.

That’s why we made these two events together, the promotion of the installation and the announcement of the Poet Laureate, this event for Albanian letters, which happens for the first time in Albania and joins the long-standing tradition that travels from Europe to the United States of America, Canada and Australia.

This activity concludes Book October, a month of activities, for which I would like to thank the Director of the Book and Reading Center >, Alda Bardhyli for the desire and enthusiasm, for the unifying spirit to bring people of letters together, because, in these crafts of ours, political convictions have no importance.

Art must speak to everyone and I feel it as an obligation to thank all those who have joined the activities of the National Book and Reading Center, which has had the full support of the Ministry of Culture.

This difficult pandemic year showed us how important books and reading are for our lives, so we will not get tired of repeating:Read Albanian! Read Albanian authors!

And under this sky of poetry sprinkled by the stars of our literature, from De Rada, to Naim, Asdreni, Çajupi, Migjeni, Poradeci, etc., let we give way to another tradition, started by the Greeks with a laurel wreath. Today we will also have our poet laureate.

Each of the nominees deserves to be Poet Laureate, and I wouldn’t want to be in the jury position at all.

Congratulations to everyone and poetry keeps our soul heavy!