Teesta Review: A Journal of Poetry, Volume 6, Number 1. May 2023. ISSN: 2581-7094
What Else Can We Do?
When Joseph Brodsky was awarded the 1987
Noble Prize for Literature, the North American media drew attention to the
poet's first meeting with a Soviet court who questioned his claim to be a poet.
Any thoughtful reader investing in poetry, or engaged in a poetry book, will
ask themselves the same. I can't help but quote a few of lines from one of my
poems in response to the judge's query.
‘When
I have spoken
A
lot remained untold
Why
do you ask?
What
I have seen
I
missed out much more
Why
do you ask?’……
What
I have seen
I
missed out much more
Why
do you ask?’……
Poets usually speak in a language which
is way beyond the realms of mundane. And they typically speak little leaving
the readers to complete the interpretation on their own. Even if it is lyrical,
a simple statement most often dilutes the essence of poetry. Truth is revealed
by a poet in a way that must be discovered, or else much would go untold.
I
have said so little
Like
a silent tree
With
shadows growing large in the afternoon sun
Or
I
have said little
Much
less than the width
of
a winter river
I am tempted to quote from a very
well-known Indian poet Sunil Gangyopadhyay who used to write in Bengali
language, the same language in which Rabindranath Tagore wrote,
‘It’s
not me who writes
Why
still unnecessarily blame me’
Here, the poet draws attention to dual
existence. A poet's existence may not be limited to duality; occasionally, it
involves multiple personalities, and several forms. Poets express their
philosophical and cerebral selves in several shades, or layers, as one may say.
For a quality creation, these tints or layers are crucial. One may speculate on
how art has changed over time. When combined, these various hues of a poet’s
personality may reveal much more than what is initially visible. The question
here is which shade would occupy the most space when a certain event occurs. Our lives are inundated with triggers of
events every day. The sensitive poet might see all but react to a few. The
response to them might vary, and many events would not elicit any response at
all.
The way a particular poet would respond
to love might be totally different from another poet’s response, or the way a
particular poet responds to atrocities or oppression will be vastly different
rom another. Usually human beings are sensitive to issues depending on their
social, emotional conditioning that build their socio-political or economic
perspectives. The poets are no different. Their responses primarily depend on
which chamber of the subconscious lights up to which stimuli so as to elicit
the response. Rarely does a poet's
entire existence respond identically to some outside event. A poet may
occasionally feel concerned by the relentless assault on nature's existence, or
he or she may choose to ignore such horrors. It is impossible to predict which
part of the poet’s emotional or cerebral faculty would respond to which event and how. Is there any well- thought out purpose, an
agenda behind writing a poem or it is just and expression of
feelings a traditional way to express emotions?
While discussing about poetry we often
speak about tradition. Let me narrate a story that I heard from one of my
school teachers who taught us mathematics. I have forgotten the context that
had prompted him to narrate the story, but that is beside the point. The story was about
a family umbrella. The present owner of a splendid umbrella used to claim that it was his great
grand- father who bought the umbrella from England and it was a matter of pride
for him to be able to use it. When pointed out that over the years the
connecting strings, the cloth and even the main handle have been changed then
how could it remain the same English umbrella that he should feel proud about? The
man would still argue that he believed that it was the same umbrella that his
forefathers used and that he was literally carrying the tradition. This story gives
us a different insight to tradition. As some would love to say tradition is
nothing but a series of innovations and seeming continuity, it is a matter of
faith rather than a thing of reality.
The above incident of umbrella can be
related to the revolutions and renewals that has been happening to poetry over the
last century. Faith and belief has dominated humankind than anything else. But
ideally one should nurture doubt rather than faith while creating since modernism
and post-modernism could not have flourished without the inquiry, both of the
self and of the language as a tool. The
thinking mind as well as the quality of human lives have evolved to a different
plane over last one hundred years which, to a larger extent has also influenced
the evolution of poetry. Poetry has been
evolving continuously to cope with the change in social approach, environment, the
human society at large. With the metamorphosis of everything around us, the
matter of sense and sensibilities cannot be left behind. The way of expression,
perception and idioms have also changed, which in turn get reflected in the
content as well as in the form of poetry. Contemporary issues whether political
or social or environmental find their way into literature.
Indian English poetry in this country
began to adapt to modernism with its exposure to World Literature. Instead of adopting to the English form and
content the poets began to focus on real events happening around them and look
into themselves as subjects. This introspective journey of the poets may, in my
opinion, be seen as the beginning of modernism in Indian English poetry. Now the
question is can we really do away with nature completely? Even when poets were
provoked to look inwards, in reality they could not move far away from nature.
Whenever the poets had to look for any imagery, most of the time they need to
lean on nature, with the most clichéd options of rivers, seas, jungles or
mountains, the cloud and the rains , the sun and the moon and the twinkling
stars. The blossoming flower or the chirp of birds. Sometimes even constructed buildings like temples,
or old structures like forts are all included in the extended version of nature.
The poets, with their fine sensibilities have always understood that they were
themselves parts of nature – human life is part of nature, that nature has its
way through us and in us. Within us is
the valley of the wind, within us is the deepest sea. Now the question arises if
we are so much indebted to nature, if we take so much of resources from nature,
do not the poets have any responsibility towards it in return? The answer is
both Yes and No. As sensitive beings living in an anthropocene world, it is our
moral duty to preserve mother earth and uphold peace, but if a writer or poet's
only goal is to create work that will raise awareness of the need to protect
the environment, I have my doubts that this will compromise the fundamental aim
of poetic art. This is my opinion.
Poetry is not only created on a piece of
paper (now a days on computer screen) but much before that poetry is created in
the poet’s mind with the passionate paint -brush of the heart. The process of
this creation is like free fall of rhythmic spring from the mountain top. This
fall spontaneous as well as rhythmic. The spring flows with all its vigor and
freedom in the direction channeled by itself. So is poetry in the poet‘s
psyche. If someone decides to control or direct the flow to one direction its
bound to lose the vigor. Poetry becomes superficial if it is written with a
certain intention and that intention dominates the work.
Literature
and especially poetry is a form of literature that opens up the eye of a
language. Just as a flower opens up quietly, invisibly, hidden from everyone's
eyes, poetry also emerges in seclusion.
To quote Octavio Paz,
Even silence says
something, for it is pregnant with signs. We cannot escape from language.. the
nets for catching words are made of words only .. the poet’s language is that
of his community, whatever that latter may be. This is what I would like to
call Poet’s community though again quoting Paz, Condemned to live in the
substratum of history , the modern poet is defined by loneliness. (The
Bow and the Lyre, University of Texas, 1973.)
According to Paz,
Poetry is not truth
It is the resurrection of
presences,
history
transfigured in the truth of
undated time
Poetry , like history is made
Poetry Like truth is seen
Poetry incarnation of the sun on
the stones in name
Dissolution of the name in a beyond
of stones
Poetry , suspension bridge between
history and truth
Is not a path towards this or that
The stillness in motion change
In stillness
History is the path
It goes nowhere, we walk it
Truth is to walk it
We neither go nor come
We are in the hands of time
Truth is to know ourselves from the
beginning….
Poets should not be loaded with agendas,
they should not be held accountable for anything other than writing poetry but it remains a responsibility as a human to inspires humanity and create a safe
environment for the emergence of peace. Responsibility for the betterment of
humanity stems from this basic response to the environment. However, a poet may be unsure of how she or he
might respond to humanity. So how does the poet accept accountability? There
remains a conflict .A poet has the responsibility and commitment to be honest
to whatever he writes .If we look back to Aristotle almost two millennia before,
he wrote that although writing and spoken words are not the same for everyone,
the states of the soul and the things that these signs designate are the same.
In most cases the gap remains between the soul’s understanding and the
communication. But there are certain times when this gap gets filled up by
signs deeper than language, that is the language of poetry.
The poet is an integral part of the
nature. The slow decay and destruction of nature, disruption of the values that
disturbs harmony and destroys peace in nature disturbs the poet. A voice from within the poet, a voice that
sounds familiar but is beyond our reach if the mind is disturbed makes us write
.What else can we do, we poets? We can express our minds, our desires, our
protests our longing to get rid of all the restlessness through our creations. Poetry
abhors violence. It does not adhere to the weapon language. It pricks at your
conscience and makes you feel uncomfortable. You need to seek out tranquilly. That
is what we have tried to capture in this issue. We have appealed to hear the
knock at the door of the poets’ hearts. Let us stand up and raise our voices by
contributing poetry which is an expression of belief in peace just as a flower
can spread the message of peace.
(Guest Editor)
Teesta Review: A Journal of Poetry
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