“I ask them to take a poem

and hold it up to the light

like a color slide

or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a poem

and watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem’s room

and feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to waterski

across the surface of a poem

waving at the author’s name on the shore.

But all they want to do

is tie the poem to a chair with rope

and torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hose

to find out what it really means.”

 

Poetry; Something that draws an array of emotions through our soul, something that pulls the strings from our mind, the clear expression of mixed feelings, the rhythmical creation of beauty in words, language at its most distilled and powerful form.

What is not already said about poetry that we need to adhere about, what is not already felt about poetry that we need to believe about. Poetry, as an art form is said to have predated literacy. The existence of poetry goes way back to the time when it existed in the form of hymns and chants. Aristotle’s Poetics described the three genres of poetry as the epic, comic, and tragic, and these developed rules to distinguish the highest-quality poetry of each genre, based on the underlying purposes of that genre. Later aestheticians identified three major genres namely epic poetry, lyric poetry, and dramatic poetry, treating comedy and tragedy as subgenres of dramatic poetry.

The most underlying part about poetry in our lives has been its purpose and its presence around us. We fail to notice that poetry revolves around our life right from the point that sparks to the moment of eternal darkness, we have been lusting in the world of these zings. This rhythmical creation of words has been imbibed in our brains even before we understood the depth of words. Our heart is said to run over rhythms that tune in with us. Poems like “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Johnny Johnny Yes Papa and Baba Black Sheep.’ and the lullabies that made us sleep every night, laid the groundwork for poetry in our lives. Poetry always stood in the background like a melody for our lives. We have catered to poetry as it pierces through our body and hits directly to our soul. Robert Frost rightly said that ‘There are three things, after all, that a poem must reach: the eye, the ear, and what we may call the heart or the mind. It is most important of all to reach the heart of the reader.’

Poetry was introduced to us at an early age so that we can absorb the elements of emotions, expressions, melodies, thoughts and learn the art of creative expression. Poetry is so beautiful and dynamic that our definition of it has changed over time. As we grew up, we were taught that poetry depends less on the linguistic units of sentences and paragraphs, and more on units of the organisation that is purely poetic. We studied poetry with its typical structural elements like the line, couplet, strophe, stanza, and verse paragraph. This time we didn’t just focus on the basic elements, we slowly introduced causes in poetries. Nature, People, Materialism, the human body and everything that rose a question was tackled using poetry in our basic literature subject. Poetry is simply the most beautiful, impressive, and widely effective mode of saying things, and hence its importance. It compels us to dive into its aura and draws spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings from our soul. As Dylan Thomas said, It is what makes us laugh, cry, prickle, be silent, makes our toenails twinkle, makes us want to do this or that or nothing, makes us know that we are alone in the unknown world, that our bliss and suffering is forever shared and forever all our own.

Our journey with poetry has now landed its steps on the floors of contemporary poetry. This form of poetry of the present era has been very definitive and effective in its own way. It is a poem which is often free verse that is unrhymed and with no specific metrical rhythm per se. It lets the readers know and associate with the language even better than traditional forms of poetry and the most important characteristic of contemporary poetry is that it invites the reader to interpret the poem without yelling from the rooftops the true meaning of the poem. This particular form has opened the doors for spoken word poetry which has given the modern poets a stage to talk about major issues that society is dealing with.

We need to adhere to the fact that whatever poetry is up to, it requires our trust along with our consent to let it try to change our way of thinking and feeling. Nothing without this risk. I expect scuba diving must be like poetry. Once you get used to it, you can’t imagine not wanting to dive into its beautiful world. But it’s more serious than scuba diving. Poetry is the safest known mode of human risk. You risk only staying alive.

” Elaborate like you have felt,

And rest will be subtly dealt,

All is the cluster of words,

Where you start, what you choose, assemble the dispersed,

It’s not the emotion but the feeling,

Not the scar but some healing,

Get a pencil, and a board, and your fingers to go,

Your mind on set, your heart to flow,

Make a wish, Take a step, be the change,

Repeat in mind and expand your range,

Right will be the path that you will choose,

Perception is overrated, don’t be confused,

I guess you have your answer somehow,

A little something that should be tried by thou. “

–Y

Graphic by Sudhanva Vaidya.