Struga, 25 August 2022 (MIA) — Japanese composer and pianist Kensaku Tanikawa, the son of the 2022 Struga Poetry Evening’s Golden Wreath winner Shuntarō Tanikawa, and the 2020 SPE Golden Wreath winner, Israeli poet Amir Or, planted tree saplings at the Poetry Park in Struga, as is tradition, ahead of the festival’s official start on Thursday evening. “My father regrets that he could not come in person, but he is here in his heart,“ the laureate's son said. Or gave thanks for winning the Golden Wreath. “I feel privileged and honored to have become a member of a select group of laureates,” he said. Last year, SPE organizers restored around 50 signs marking the trees planted by previous laureates. The signs now feature the Golden Wreath award winners’ names and countries as well as QR codes that take readers to their poems and biographies on the SPE website. The 61st poetry festival’s opening ceremony will be held at the Drim Hotel patio instead of the Miladinov Brothers Cultural Center yard because heavy rain in the forecast had prevented organizers from setting up their sound system, they said. This year's festival will run through August 29 under the motto ‘The Rhythm of a Line, the Rhythm of Life’ to highlight the link between the rhythmic patterns in poetry and in nature as well as the connection between poetry and music, according to organizers. In addition to 30 local poets, 24 foreign poets have confirmed their attendance. At the official closing ceremony on Sunday, Kensaku Tanikawa will accept the Golden Wreath, the festival’s main prize given to a poet for his complete oeuvre, on behalf of the 2022 laureate Shuntarō Tanikawa. The 2022 Miladinov Brothers award, given to the best poetry book by a Macedonian poet published since last year’s SPE, will go to Zoran Anchevski's "Confused Compasses." The 2022 UNESCO-sponsored Bridges of Struga award for a debut poetry collection will be awarded to Gerardo Masuccio for his "Fin qui visse un uomo." The festival's poetry readings and other events will be streamed live on the SPE YouTube channel. mr/