The annual Poetry Day will take place on Feb. 17 in Ha Noi, Nghe An and HCM City.

Huu Thinh, chairman of the Vietnam Writers Association, said the occasion would also be used to mark the 100th anniversary of Ho Chi Minh who left the country in 1911 to seek ways for national salvation from the French colonists.

"There will be a soil and water procession at Hanoi's Temple of Literature," Thinh said. "A delegation of writers from the central region will bring some soil from President Ho's home in Sen Village to the temple."

They will also bring some water from the source of the historical Pac Bo Cave's Lenin Stream, where the president lived and worked in the 1940s, in the northern province of Cao Bang to the temple.

The soil and water will be housed at the association's museum in Hanoi.

Poetry readings will take place in President Ho's homeland, Nghe An province, and at Nha Rong Wharf in HCM City.

At Hanoi's Temple of Literature the busts of 30 famed writers will be displayed.

Lanterns bearing 100 verses will also adorn the temple.

The first Poetry Day was held in 2003 at the Temple of Literature./.