Celebrating Verse ahead of World Poetry Day

Ahead of World Poetry Day on March 21, four Bengaluru poets talk about the poets who inspire them and how one can get started with poetry

Many people, even avid readers, find themselves intimidated by reading or trying to write poetry. But, perhaps through a line from an old Urdu ghazal that brings tears to your eyes, or a childhood Kannada rhyme that makes you giggle, or a few lines of Shakespeare you learnt at school that readily come to your lips – poetry pervades. Poems are everywhere, and have a way of embedding themselves, whether you consider yourself a ‘poetry person’ or not. With World Poetry Day right around the corner, Bengaluru’s up-and-coming and established poets share some of the poets, poems, and collections that have touched them, and would be a great start to your poetry-reading journey.

1. Mani Rao, poet and translator

Prashant Shankaran

1. The Compass Bird by Siddhartha Menon

2. The Grasp of Things by Aishwarya Iyer

“One finds (and learns) different things from different poetic voices. Among contemporary Indian poets, Siddhartha Menon for delight and observation skill, Sekhar Banerjee for thematic control, and Sharmistha Mohanty for un-posturing purity, coincidence of thought and language. Then there is Aishwarya Iyer for innerscapes, Anand Thakore for storytelling, formal excellence and fluency, and Vivek Narayanan’s poetry in After and Kurantokai for sheer beauty.”

2. Megha Rao, writer and performance poet

1. Beyond the Barbed Wire: Selected Poems by Abdellatif Laabi

2. Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth by Warsan Shire

“Laabi’s collection of prison poetry is a reminder of how powerful resilience and defiance can be, while Warsan Shire dives into what it means to be a woman, a daughter, and a refugee. It captures trauma in its most unfiltered form... I like to see rawness, courage, and integrity in writing, in the sense that the poet is not here to please anyone – they are here to speak their truth.”

3. Dadapeer Jyman, Kannada poet, writer and translator

1. Prathibha Kaavya by Prathibha Nandakumar

2. Pada Sanchara by Mamta Sagar

3. Neelu and Akshara Hosa Kavya by P Lankesh

“I recommend these three poets specifically because they are very sensitive; courageous poets responding to the socio-political scenarios around them. They also write in free verse and there’s an ease in their work that people can connect with.”

4. Denzel Joyson, spoken word poet

1. I Was The Wind Last Night: New And Collected Poems by Ruskin Bond

2. Alexa, What Is There to Know About Love by Brian Bilston

“Something that triggered my interest in poetry years ago, as a child in elementary school, was Ruskin Bond’s I Was the Wind Last Night. I find that collection to be incredible, because he brings a sort of childlike innocence and wonder to his writing. Brian Bilston, on the other hand, is really funny, and his observations are really keen and incredibly tapped in.

5. Try it out!

Pick up a pen and try these simple exercises to push the bounds of your creativity and write a poem:

The ‘andare’ technique

"In Kannada, we have words like ‘preethi andare’ or ‘amma andare’ with the suffix ‘andare’ after preethi (love) and amma (mother). These phrases ask what these individuals or ideas mean to you. Start your poem by beginning with these phrases."

(Contributed by Dadapeer Jyman)

Hone your eye

“Look at something and write about it. Anything – an object, a work of art, the roots of a tree, or a pencil drawing of a circle on a page. If you find that you are tending to rhyme or being less expressive because you are conscious of the form of a poem, express yourself in prose and see how far you can push your ideas. Find the core of your angst/idea from this material, and then start building around it again.”

(Contributed by Mani Rao)