Knowledge and information are updated but poetry is the eternal glow and flow of the perennial wisdom, says bilingual poet Swapna Behera whose poems have been translated in nearly 70 national and international languages.
Vande Mataram. These were not just two words from Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay’s Bengali fiction Anandamath, they proved to be the most potent weapon of India’s Independence Movement. These two words could unite the freedom fighters irrespective of their caste, creed, religion and the region they belong to. While Vande Mataram inspired the rebels, it evoked terror for the British Government. People were lodged in jail if they gave this slogan.
This is not a solitary incident. Poetry has played a decisive role in revolutions across the globe. But what role poetry really plays in a common man’s life or why a peasant sings loudly while working in the field? Why poetry is important for love and pain? What would have happened had there not been poetry?
On World Poetry Day, a few powerful contemporary poets tell Sunday POST about the purpose of poetry and what is that poetry and poetry alone can do.
Poets on poetry
Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility
-William Wordsworth, English poet
Poetry lifts the veil from the hidden beauty of the world, and makes familiar objects be as if they were not familiar
-Percy Bisshey Shelley, English romantic poet
Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood
—TS Eliot, American-English poet
All poets, all writers are political. They either maintain the status quo, or they say, ‘Something’s wrong, let’s change it for the better’
—Sonia Sanchez, American Poet
Poetry and beauty are always making peace. When you read something beautiful you find coexistence; it breaks walls down
—Mahmoud Darwis, Palestinian poet
‘An eternal pilgrimage’
Pabitra Mohan Dash, a well known poet, novelist and critic, says writing poems is a spiritual practice for him. Over the years, he has been transformed from a firebrand romantic poet to a wordsmith whose works reflect the reality of his time and living.
The English lecturer of Shastri Smruti Degree Mahavidyalay, who commands a strong fan base, says, “ Poetry has no purpose. It only holds and reveals the multiple dimensions of existence. It acts as a catalyst to celebrate life. Poetry is an eternal pilgrimage having no destination. It starts with words and goes beyond. Information and knowledge have their own place in this world but poetry relies upon wisdom.”
The Vajravamshee poet who has seven anthologies to his credit continues: “Once American-English poet TS Eliot had rightly said ‘where is the knowledge we have lost in informaion?’. So issue of information being mistaken as knowledge is not new.Our focus should remain on poetry. The key role of poetry is to communicate and connect. By means of communication it can convert the language of bigotry and intolerance in to that of harmony. It can convince us that life is undivided so we shouldn’t destroy each other.”
However, poetry claims no direct responsibility. It can silently help in flowering of human mind .It can provide people the required strength to fight for dignity of life. Poetry can generate the language of protest but poetry alone can do nothing except radiating it’s own brightness, adds the Dandibruta poet.
‘Poetry alone can save us from becoming zombies’
Nikhilesh Mishra is a powerful voice in the literary circuit of Odisha. In his upcoming poetry anthology Kabitie Marigala Pare (After a poet dies), he blends ‘what is’ with ‘what could have been’ to test the potential of poetry. One can find the glimpses of grief, vulnerability, loss, anger, love and joy in his poems.
On what poetry can alone do, he says, “In poetry, pauses are as important – if not more – as words are. Anyone reading/listening/writing/living poetry is well-acquainted with pauses, both literally and metaphorically. Now in our age, not only information, but misinformation is also being accepted as knowledge. That’s because we are all obsessed with speed, with getting everything readymade at our finger tip. The dangers of such a way of life are all too evident. We have become less empathetic and more reactionary, less bothered about facts (or opinions for that matter), and much more about the shrillness of any voice that suits our own prejudices. In these terrible times, poetry – and poetry alone – can make us pause.”
The poet of Kehi Jane Kejani Kouthi, a book that made to the final shortlist for Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar 2020, continues: “And once we pause, even if for a moment, poetry offers us the scope of reflecting upon the world and ourselves. Once we pause, there is time enough for all the little joys and sorrows of life; there is time enough for empathizing with another human being in agony; there is time enough for actually living life and not just enduring it.”
Poetry alone can save us from becoming zombies. Poetry alone has the potential for keeping alive the humanity in all human beings, adds Mishra, an alumnus of Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi who is now a student of Direction and Screenplay Writing at Satyajit Ray Film & Television Institute, Kolkata.
‘A song of the soul’
Bilingual poet Swapna Behera is also an educationist and the Cultural Ambassador for India and South East Asia of Inner Child Press, the United States. She has not only participated in several national and international seminars on literature, her poems have been translated in nearly 70 languages across the globe.
Asked about what poetry means to common man, she says, “Poetry assimilates and flies beyond borders. It crosses the boundaries of culture, religion, caste, colour and deletes all discriminations. It is the logical logistic of millions of expressions. Knowledge is the information and digital footsteps in the brain but poetry is the radiant dances of the heart, by the heart and for the heart. Poetry can break the geographical boundaries. Poetry is just like the pollen grains, the first monsoon for a farmer, breast milk for a baby, dreams of a child. Yes, I do believe poetry can lead the aesthetic movements. Poetry codifies the sojourn journey of the soul from eyes to alphabets. Poetry is the alpha and omega .
Poetry heals inner wounds, protects values, germinates, rejuvenates, explores and deletes the stigmas, taboos and also detoxifies. Above all, poetry is the voice of an orphan, widow and the environment.”
She goes on to add that poetry is the strongest medium to delete the segregation, divisions, inconsistencies, ambiguities, contradictions and manmade concoctions. Today a man is imprisoned in his own cage. Nature is the paramount poetry and great Love Guru. Poetry creates the ruminations, purifies the inner self with innumerable fragrances.
Knowledge can argue with the collected information but poetry is the song of the soul, a gift of the cosmic energy. So poetry can stand alone to speak for itself. Poetry is ‘bliss’ with its own aura, she further says.
On the relevance of poetry in today’s time she points out, “We talked of information explosion in the late 1980s, the information superhighways through the 1990s .We are so much engrossed to leave our digital foot prints today but the Greater Peace is always hash tagged with poetry of love, humanity and core values. Knowledge and information are updated but poetry is the eternal glow and flow of the perennial wisdom.”