Poetry for difficult times

At the Delhi launch of their book, two poets discuss renga-style collaboration, the pandemic’s emotional landscape, and poetry as refuge
Marilyn Hacker and Karthika Naïr's "A Different Distance" revisits pandemic's raw, vulnerable moments
Marilyn Hacker and Karthika Naïr's "A Different Distance" revisits pandemic's raw, vulnerable moments(Image used for representational purposes)
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“We are not actually here, and it is not 2024. It’s 2020, and we are in Paris," observed Nilanjana S. Roy, flipping through A Different Distance by Marilyn Hacker and Karthika Naïr. The poetry collection, published by Westland, explores the pandemic’s collective experience using the ancient Japanese renga style, with alternating stanzas by the two poets. The book had its Indian launch at Alliance Française de Delhi, featuring Patricia Loison, Director of Alliance Française, Delhi; Nilanjana S. Roy, author and literary critic; and Karthika Naïr, French-Indian poet.

Naïr describes renga as a collaborative poetic form, originating in the courts and later evolving into a more experimental art. Despite its loosening structure, the core of renga remained about togetherness, a sentiment highlighted by Naïr: “The irony being Marilyn and I could hardly ever meet.”

Critic Nilanjana S Roy with poet Karthika Naïr
(L-R) Critic Nilanjana S Roy with poet Karthika Naïr

Working with Hacker

The partnership began when Hacker, newly returned to Paris from Lebanon, reached out to Naïr during the lockdowns with a simple request: “Do you want to write together?” This became a lifeline for both poets in a time of isolation. For Naïr, it was “a lifeline, a sanity saver.”

Over a year, they continued to write, like letters exchanged in the darkness, driven by the universal human need for connection. “Even the most hermit-like among us need to be heard,” Naïr remarked. The collection, A Different Distance, ultimately became “a record of survival, of reaching out, and of bridging the distances of the pandemic.”

Working with Hacker was, for Naïr, “alchemy.” She said, “There are limits to what one can do alone, but with collaboration—especially with people you admire, people you want to defend the same things with, people you can trust the planet with—it becomes something much more.” Naïr also emphasized the deeply personal nature of their collaboration, especially in light of her battle with cancer during the pandemic. “Marilyn had undergone chemo years earlier and understood what I was going through, though it wasn’t something I spoke about publicly.”

For Naïr, poetry distills emotion through sound. “Poetry is primarily a sonic form,” she explains. “It’s like music; it’s about the sound that lingers after everything else is gone.” Poetry became a refuge and an escape from the physical constraints of her body. “It was more than just an escape. It was resistance,” she said. Poetry, for Naïr, is something to hold onto in difficult times—an amulet of sorts, a beautiful and lasting presence.

A Different Distance
A Different Distance

Stories from Lockdown

A Different Distance transports readers back to the vulnerable moments of the pandemic—times marked by grief, loneliness, and quietude. Naïr reflects on how life transformed during the months of lockdown, describing these changes through the lens of sound.

“It was so quiet. We started hearing birdsong,” Naïr shared. “We couldn’t enter public places, but we could watch. Suddenly, there was a reminder of the non-human world—life is more than human beings.” She saw this shift as a rediscovery of silence, revealing a world usually overshadowed by human activity. Yet, this silence wasn’t empty. “The only people on the streets were those with no choice, like the homeless. It became a city of absences, of unnoticed presences.”

Her observations echo the themes of A Different Distance, a collection that captures not only the isolation of the pandemic but also the rediscovery of a world beyond human noise—a world of stillness, nature, and overlooked lives. 

Guilt and Grief

In A Different Distance, Naïr and Hacker capture the vulnerability of the human body during the pandemic, using the "tyranny of the body" as a metaphor for the limitations and isolation felt during this time. This concept highlights how the body became the sole place of existence during the crisis. Naïr, undergoing chemotherapy, saw her body’s frailty as a lens through which to understand the suffering of others. “What changed was the absence of touch, and a greater consciousness of every safety net falling away,” she said.

Naïr’s reflections on guilt and solidarity emphasize the contrasts of the pandemic. While she had shelter and employment, many faced greater uncertainties. “Some things became universal,” she observes, pointing to the shared experience of scarcity, such as grocery shortages. Yet, those with means could escape to safer places, while migrant workers struggled to survive, their losses often uncounted.

For Naïr, the phrase “different distance” encapsulated the fractures and solidarity of that time. “That phrase is powerful for me,” she shared, “because it encapsulates the fractures, the solidarity, and the brutal realities that defined those months.”
Despite the challenges, small pleasures became lifelines—simple moments like trips to the bakery or brief walks outside, which were once mundane, became precious. Naïr concluded by emphasizing the joy found in these small acts of freedom, which, during the pandemic, felt like gifts—a renewed appreciation for life’s simplest moments.

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