Had you attended Toto Funds the Arts’ About Poetry event, at British Council, you would have fallen in love with poetry. There are some who are born poets, for whom writing and understanding poetry come naturally. There are others who dread it, unable to grasp its essence and rhythm. Who is a poet? Does poetry have a purpose? Is it accessible to all? These were some of the questions that emerged during the event, which not only brought out the beauty of poetry but also the fact that there are no strict rules of interpretations. A poem is meant to ignite a feeling; it could be one of indignation, of happiness or of consolation. Moderated by C.K. Meena, the event saw a wide range of poetry, from fun and playful to serious and thought provoking in English and Kannada, which were read out by Nakul Bhalla, Lekha Naidu, Padmanabh Bhat, Prateek Mukunda and Sowmya Bhat.
The event began with the reading of Czech poet Miroslav Holub’s poem in which he suggests “art is fidelity to failure”. The first question that comes to mind is how does an idea find the poet? To understand this, a series of poems were read out. Pablo Neruda’s Poetry recaptures the moment when he was first touched by poetry. “I wrote the first faint line,” Neruda writes, “faint, without substance, pure nonsense…pure wisdom of someone who knows nothing.” Ted Hughes in The Thought Fox writes about the creative act of writing a poem, which concludes with the lines: “The window is starless still; the clock ticks. The page is printed.”
Noted Kannada poet, playwright and folklorist Chandrashekhar Kambar’s Kavite suggests how he loses himself in the act of writing poetry. “Sometimes poets have no grand purpose in mind,” explained C.K. Meena and introduced the next poet, Wendy Cope. Her poem The Uncertainty of the Poet playfully asks in a roundabout, hilarious way that might make you go bananas: Am I a poet?
In Ars Poetica Czeslaw Milosz argues that the purpose of poetry is to remind us how difficult it is to be one person. Roger McGough says it like it is in Give Poetry a Bad Name and lists out what he wishes poetry and poets should do. The powerful line: “May they be damned and published!” stood out.
K.V. Thirumalesh’s poem reflected how poetry has found him and he cannot become a non-poet. Arundhathi Subramaniam’s Poems matter because they have holes sees poems as cotton. Kala Krishnan Ramesh’s poem, What Her Mother Said To Her Neighbours shows devotional poetry can be beautiful and not clichéd or trite. The event concluded with Carol Glen’s The Poem wants a drink in which she frankly states: “This poem could do with a drink.”
The conversations around poetry led the audience to ponder over what entails poetry. While some said we are all poets at heart, irrespective of whether we put down our thoughts in words, others said poetry must be written. Most agreed that poetry consoles, while others contended that it also entertains. Writer Vivek Shanbhag said poetry involves a deep engagement with the language, and so it is difficult to translate poetry into other languages. By the end of the event, we were satisfied that poetry doesn’t intimidate. It is meant to stir something deep within your soul and give expression to your innermost thoughts.
