JANET ORLENE
Your favourite love poem:
Variations On The Word Sleep by Margaret Atwood because it expresses so much emotion in so few words.
A poem/poet you keep going back to:
Here am I by Anis Mojgani. It pulls me out of my darkest days and pushes me to think on my better days. I believe it to be the “This too
shall pass” of poetry. The writing is exceptionally relatable. I keep performing this to myself and often start workshops with it.
The first poem you remember reading:
I had a large book of Mother Goose Poetry I use to drag around wherever I went. I must have been four or five when this was given to
me. The book had both simple rhymes and longer ones, so it lasted for quite a while. With breakfast those days often being millet porridge,
I remember singing this often:
“Peas porridge hot,
Peas porridge cold,
Peas porridge in the pot
Nine days old.”
Written word or slam? Or songs?
How can I compare them? I can’t decide between a wall mural and a canvas! Music for the journeys, spoken word on YouTube or preferably live performances and written word for rainy days or when there is grass under my feet.
Epics or anthologies?
Eclectic tastes require anthologies with different genres. For me, something which includes beat poetry, nonsense poetry and elegies.
Poetry vs prose:
Prose-poetry. Yes, that is a genre. The language is poetry while the sentences are grammatically prose. Spoken word is often typical
prose-poetry.
Inspiration / influences:
Anis Mojgani, Denise Frohman, Allen Ginsburg, Khalil Gibran, Agha Shahid Ali , Salma, and so on and so forth.
SHRUTHI MOHAN
Your favorite love poem:
Shakespeare, one of the very first poets I was introduced to, has always been one of my favourites.
For the language, the metaphors, the depth and his legacy.
Let me not to the marriage of true minds (Sonnet 116) was first published in 1609.
It has a very subtle comparison of how love is like ‘stars’, the one that guides and the one that never outgrows itself.
Love is ever-lasting.
Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark, Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.
Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
A poem / poet you keep going back to:
Undoubtedly the poem by Mariam Paracha from Pakistan, For Sarah. It talks about how girls have to constantly prove their worth while they discover their own strengths. How they are expected to play each role, one better than the other and this whole process of fighting stereotypes often narrows down their options. The poem is so empowering and real.
https://campusdiaries.com/note/for-sarah
The first poem you remember reading:
It has to be The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost. I’m glad we were introduced to it in school.
Written word or slam? Or songs?
They are inevitably three different stages -- a loop, a mutually inclusive way to celebrate words.
Epics or anthologies? Or any other genre?
Epics. Most that I have read have highlighted the cultural norms and celebrated heroism.
Poetry vs prose:
Poetry any day.
Inspiration / influences:
I have been highly inspired by age-old poets like Robert Frost, Charles Bukowski, Slyvia Plath, Shakespeare. Indian legends like Gulzaar and Javed Akhtar. My very first stint at spoken word poetry was influenced by my friends Shaun D’Souza, Priyam Redican, Mayank Susngi from Open Sky Slam.
RADHA THOMAS
Your favourite love poem:
Billy Strayhorn’s fabulous song / poem Lush Life. It appeals to the dissolute part of me.
I’ll forget you, I know
While yet you are still burning inside my brain.
Romance is mush,
Stifling those who strive.
I’ll live a lush life in some small dive
And there I’ll be,
While I rot with the rest of
Those whose lives are lonely, too.
A poem / poet you keep going back to:
So the poem I keep going back to is more of a prayer really, The
Serenity Prayer. Just to remind me not to be stupid. My mother used to tell me to say it to myself if I was ever at a cross-roads and unsure of which way to go.
The first poem you remember reading:
Godfrey Gordon Gustavus Gore, by William Brighty Rands, way back in 1823. I love it. I like wagging my finger and repeating it to my Significan Other because I swear to you, he never shuts the door. Any door.
Written word or slam? Or songs?
I write a lot of poetry. And it’s mostly for songs. But sometimes just for fun, to make my son laugh for instance...usually instant poetry, based on something he said. Not slam, I’m not that smart. I need to have a computer in front of me to be able to think. I love song lyrics. The discipline of being able to write to spec for rhythm and melody, and be aware of vowels and consonants as they appear in the middle of lines, at the end of lines. It’s like a crossword puzzle.
And I love those.
Epics or anthologies?
Songs, songs, songs, songs. I
Poetry vs prose:
Hard to say. I write both and I like both.
Inspiration / influences:
Cole Porter. He wrote over 1,000 songs and the poems that went with them.
MAMTA SAGAR
Your favourite love poem:
Bendre’s ‘naanu badavi aata badava... olaven amma baduku’.
A poem / poet you keep going back to:
Gopalakrishna Adiga for the skill and musicality.
The first poem you remember reading:
Daffodils by Wordsworth.
Written word or slam? Or songs?
Performance poetry that involves all three forms.
Epics or anthologies?
Vachanas.
Poetry vs prose:
First poetry, then poetic prose.