BENGALURU: From recalling their favourite Neruda lines to weighing lyrics as poetry, poets to be featured at Bengaluru Poetry Festival share their two cents on literature. The fest will be held at The Leela Palace on August 5 and 6.
SUDEEP SEN
What is one bane of poetry?
That everyone and anyone thinks they can write poetry. So much bad name to modern poetry has come about because poetasters feel they can write a sentence, chop it in up into several lines,centre the text, add a fancy font –viola, that is poem! The reality is so so far from that.
What are your favourite lines from a poem.
“A man’s reach should exceed his grasp / or what’s heaven for?” –Robert Browning “I want to do with you what spring does to cherry trees” –-Pablo Neruda “At the end of this sentence, rain will begin.” –- Derek Walcott
Have you ever pretended to understand a poem?
All the time.
Do you agree with the popular sentiment that Rupi Kaur is the Chetan Bhagat of poetry?
Who is Rupi Kaur? She is a nonpoet as far as I’m concerned.
Can lyrics be considered poetry?
Sometimes yes, but only in a very limited way.
SUMANA ROY
What is one bane of poetry?
The fact that poetry must always remain an orphan,and without patronage. But that it must be homeless,and always in need of subtitles, is also where its power is.
Anytime you have pretended to understand a poem?
Never. And also all the time. Never, because one really doesn’t need to pretend to understand anything,except exam question papers and the immigration offi cer’s questions. All the time because meaning is highly overrated. There is certainly more to a poem than mere meaning.
Do you agree with the popular sentiment that Rupi Kaur is the Chetan Bhagat of poetry?
Is that the new touchstone method of our times? If it is the popular that your question is hinting at, we must remember that Shakespeare was the most popular playwright of his time.
Can lyrics be considered poetry?
Of course. Rabindranath Tagore, my favourite songwriter, wrote songs that are some of the most beautiful
poems I’ve ever read.
MALACHI EDWIN VETHAMANI
What is one bane of poetry?
The myth that poetry is elitist and inaccessible to many readers.
What are your favourite lines from a poem.
I thought that love would last forever; I was wrong. -W.H. Auden, ‘Stop All the Clocks’
Who is one poet that you wouldn’t confess to like in public?
I’m proud of all the poets that I like.
Which poet are you excited about at the Bengaluru Poetry Festival?
I am looking forward to meet the two other poets on the panel with me - Nia Davies and Fiona Bolger.
Do you agree with the popular sentiment that Rupi Kaur is the Chetan Bhagat of poetry?
Haven’t read much of either. But they both certainly seem to have appeal as popular literature.
Can lyrics be considered poetry?
Lyrics with literary merit can be considered poetry.
PRATHIBHA NANDAKUMAR
What are your favourite lines from a poem.
Kuvempu - “Hrudaya Kamaladi Madhura Prema makarandavide - adhara chumbanadinde savi adanu baa”D R Bendre - “Onde baari nanna nodi manda nagi haanga beeri munde munde hoda hinde nodada”
Jayanth Kaikini - “Garbha gudiya kattalalli keertanakaranige maaru hoda baala vidhave ...”
Can lyrics be considered poetry?
Poetry is everywhere - any good poetic line/thought anywhere - even on a billboard is poetry. I consider Yogaraj Bhat a poet.
NIA DAVIES
What is one bane of poetry?
Capitalism basically, but that’s not all
What are your favourite lines from a poem.
For “I love you” say f@#$ the police - Sean Bonney,Letters Against the Firmanent Life, friends, is boring - Dream Song 14, John Berryman
Have you ever pretended to understand a poem?
On occasions, I have pretended to understand people.
Who is one poet that you wouldn’t confess to like in public?
That would be confessing. But I enjoy confessing. I confess there are poets who don’t need any more public attention, but whose lines work away in the woods of me.
Can lyrics be considered poetry?
I am listening to a woman singing and talking to herself in the kitchen. This is poetry. And then I am listening to ‘Song to the Siren’, by Larry Beckett and Tim Buckley. This is also poetry. But not all lyrics are poetry, I’m sure you know this.
BARNALI RAYSHUKLA
What is one bane of poetry?
Once affl icted, it’s for life... I’d like to see that as a boon as well.
The fi nest muse, has the same strengths, which the world may see as weakness.
I choose to be seduced by this muse.
What are your favourite lines from a poem.
Dying
Is an art, like everything else.
I do it exceptionally well.
I do it so it feels like hell.
I do it so it feels real.
I guess you could say I’ve a call.
- Sylvia Plath’s poem titled : ‘Lady Lazarus’
Anytime you have pretended to understand a poem?
Nope ! Poetry has never invited such obligations,like life. Life happens and most often than not, it doesn’t offer us explanations. Poetry is like that, we shouldn’t claim to get it like a breath.
Gratifi cation delayed is sometimes most amazing.It stays longer when it hits late, like many good
things.
Who is one poet that you wouldn’t confess to like in public?
I have no such reservations yet, maybe when I get older and crankier, may have some Jurassic stipulations.
Do you agree with the popular sentiment that Rupi Kaur is the Chetan Bhagat of poetry?
Yes, I do
Can lyrics be considered poetry?
I may not be the right person to be commenting on this. But yes if Dylan’s Nobel in Literature can get many of the cynics talking, this actually is a good question to raise at a forum during the festival.
FIONA BOLGER
What is one bane of poetry?
It makes me sad to see poetry cut off from the rest of life. It is there in everyday speech, popular cultures around the world and it is also there in academia.
What are your favourite lines from a poem.
Please mention the title.
But from where we are
it doesn’t look like a country,
it’s more like the cracks
that grow between borders
behind their backs.
That’s where I live.
And I’ll be happy to say,
‘I never learned your customs.
I don’t remember your language
or know your ways.
I must be
from another country.’
- Imtiaz Dharker, They’ll
say She must be from another
country
Ever pretended to understand a poem?
No. I am sure I have read poems in ways the poet may not have intended or not been unable to understand some poems but I am not good at faking.
One poet you wouldn’t confess to like in public?
Myself.
Can lyrics be considered poetry?
Of course, from where else did the term lyric poetry come.