Speech as Guest of Honour at book launch of ‘Sargam Tuned’ a MULTI-LINGUAL anthology published by Writer’s Club on 10th July 2016 at IIC.
{Fellow panelists: Shri Laxmi Shankar Bajpai as Chief Guest,
Shri Ashok Madhup, Shri Ratan Sadh, and Mr. Pawan Jain of Aagman}
Dear friends and fellow poets,
It gives me great pleasure to be here. My thanks to
Mr. Pawan Jain, Aagaman Group, for inviting me as Guest of Honour for this event.
The launch to take place today is of a
multi-lingual anthology of poems titled Sargam Tuned, edited
by Amrit Raj and Ruchi Khandelwal, young poets and members of
Writer’s Club. I am sure this must be making each participating poet
very proud of their achievement and rightly so. It is by taking small steps
that we move towards what we want to achieve. it is also a wonderful step taken by Writer's Club to bring into being an anthology that includes some of the languages of India, and English too.
I can say the you are a in a good space right now because you have a platform like this, and others, and the availability of social media networking that enables you to put together your poems, get them heard and get them published. when I was your age, there were no such avenues, and poems sent to the few literary magazines often went unaddressed. in fact, my poems were selected by kamala Das for Femina, at a time when she was poetry editor for the magazine, but I only got to know of my poems being published in the magazine by a third party. I had to bring this to the magazine's notice, and then they acknowledged it and also gave me a small payment for the publication. But this was just chance that let me know of the publication, otherwise I would have considered my poems worthless perhaps. Now, you have the means to get published, there are many avenues, and you must take full advantage of this.
But, you must read a number of poems and poets, for as Shri bajpai has said, we must not forget the traditional methods of writing poetry in our attempts to move into the free verse phase.
I can say the you are a in a good space right now because you have a platform like this, and others, and the availability of social media networking that enables you to put together your poems, get them heard and get them published. when I was your age, there were no such avenues, and poems sent to the few literary magazines often went unaddressed. in fact, my poems were selected by kamala Das for Femina, at a time when she was poetry editor for the magazine, but I only got to know of my poems being published in the magazine by a third party. I had to bring this to the magazine's notice, and then they acknowledged it and also gave me a small payment for the publication. But this was just chance that let me know of the publication, otherwise I would have considered my poems worthless perhaps. Now, you have the means to get published, there are many avenues, and you must take full advantage of this.
But, you must read a number of poems and poets, for as Shri bajpai has said, we must not forget the traditional methods of writing poetry in our attempts to move into the free verse phase.
What can I say about poetry? A wiki definition says that
poetry is a literary work in which the expression of feelings
and ideas is given intensity by the use of distinctive style
and rhythm. Another definition: A poem makes intense use
of language, which results in a far greater concentration of meaning than
is commonly found in prose.
So basically, a few words which carry INTENSE meaning. It
calls for ‘Verbal melody and artistic rhyme’.
When we start out as amateur poets, often at a very young age
because we are experiencing this plethora of feelings, our poems will be raw,
full of feeling. As we become better and more experienced poets, our poems gain
not only because of our experience, but also because of our greater exposure to
poetry and our work become more layered, more concrete and more
structured. This is a process like any other in writing. Yet, our poems
will connect only through the intensity.
I believe poetry begins from a place of pain. That is what
drives it forward. Because, if we have a smooth, and often uneventful
life, our poems will be just that, light and full of froth. Poems
gather depth through the telling of a pain. This pain is an individual and
collective pain of humanity, it is both. And through this sharing we can
experience/taste each other’s soul for the lines are from the
heart and soul more so than the head. Poetry is beauty, sadness, pain,
hope, glory, defeat and all else that we spill into it, and all that we
read into it.
Poetry is not a use of big words or the glorification of a
feeling. It should not be cut up and analysed in order to be
understood. When poetry is an honest expression of the heart, it will be read
and heard and it will be understood.
I would like to read a couple of my
poems, both in English and in Hindi
Blue ink should spread your blood on the page
Just flow and age
Let it make no sense,
Life is nonsensical.
Red blood will die within your veins,
if kept in chains.
Blue ink spreads for eternity.
Song of Love
I
I don't know when he'll return
I never know where he's been
All I know, I'm his Bulbul
Singing his song of love.
II
I woke up to the song of love
I heard it in my dreams
I'm listening to this song all day
And cannot have enough.
III
The mind fills with his music
The body strums his song
This taste of love I experience
This taste cannot be wrong.
IV
I close my eyes and listen
With beating heart I hear him
His song of love flows on and on
and asks if I can feel him.
All works © Abha Iyengar, 10th July 2016
I am happy to say that I received a resounding applause for my
poems. And I was honoured to be in the presence of a great poet like Shri Laxmi
Shankar Bajpai.
