Poetry
is not playing with words at all. Poetry is the expression of life. Poetry
gives us the true meaning of our existence as human being. Not that, our life
depends on literature or poetry. Any one of us can survive and even thrive, in
our materialistic life; without even building up any relations with literature
or poetry as a whole. We all know that it is quite possible. However,
literature can never survive without establishing any direct relation or having
any affinity with life as a whole. Therefore, we understand that literature
depends on our life. Moreover, our life is full of sufferings pains and
despair. Our life is also full of hopes and of infinite possibilities. It is in
constant flux of good and evil, hope and despair, confusion and belief. So how
can we deny all these in our inner soul? How can we just play with words for
the sake of literature forgetting everything? Whenever and wherever we write
poems on whatever topics our subconscious mind remains occupied with the
situations or the conditions of our surroundings. It may be political, social,
economic, cultural or even spiritual, etc. but in our subconscious mind all
these continue to rule over our inner self. Not that every time we are aware of
this, but the subconscious layer of our mind can never make itself free form
these realities of our surrounding situations or conditions. Any poet who is
well equipped with his literary tools and can make a near perfect balance
between his or her literary craftmanship and surroundings, can create a
literary ambience of highest caliber. Only then one can create a literary piece
of work which can be called poetry. So, it is really a difficult and very
complex method through which one has to proceed if one really wants to write
true poetry.
Poetry
shouldn’t remain captive into the realm of poet’s own individual personality.
It must be released into the impersonal domain of universal consciousness. If
your poem has that power to make its place into the universal consciousness,
only then it would be considered as true poetry. Otherwise, it would remain as
your own emotions and expressions unfortunately separated from it’s time and
space. I can assure you dear readers, that almost all of us fail to realize
this truth about poetry in general. That is the reason, the vast majority of
the poetical works especially of this present time is actually a waste of time
and effort. Moreover, it has become the trend of this present time that we
never focus on the real issues rather our main attentions hover around the
superfluous ones. That is very unfortunate. Publishing poetry collections draws
much more attentions than the critical reviews of the poems. We like to attain
the book publishing events more than to organize a poetry seminar and
participate in it. Most of the literary events around the world do concentrate
on publishing books and the felicitation of the poets. We try to avoid
controversies; we like to remain in good terms with our fellow poets and
friends. So, we never try to evaluate the actual worth of literary aspect of
the writings. We like to remain popular among each other’s. These trends are
actually playing havoc on the resultant effects which bring down our literature
to the mediocrity.
We
are in a time that is not only difficult to accept but also most confusing to
realize. One can say, media is ruling
the mental state of common people. This feature of hypnotizing the mass through
media to strengthen the power of the ruling elites and the corporates is the
main characteristic of the present time. We as individuals have become the
puppet dancers in the hand of the media. Even most of us do not realize this
development at all. We continue to believe we are expressing our thoughts. But
these thoughts have been incorporated into our intellect by the media, through
its continuous propaganda. So, we have lost our independent intellects. Media
is controlling our thought process. And the ruling elites and the corporates
are sailing smoothly through this system, which has taken over our intellect.
Their prosperity and the escalation of their wealth depends heavily on this
system as well. So, they are continuously investing in billions to run this
system according to their interests. Whenever their interests collide with
people's intelligentsia, they come upon heavily to crush independent voices and
movements. So actually, as an individual, we have little or no place at all to
air our independent voices. Every country and every society is in the grip of
this torrid time. Yes, this is the real fact about our present time. Whether we
realize it or not, whether we want to deny it or not, matters little. We cannot
escape from this situation at all. No, we are not in a mood to discuss world
politics or analyze the political theories. But anybody wishing to remain
apolitical would certainly end up becoming either a hypocrite or a grand fool.
So, we can either gladly become the stooge of this political system or remain
aware of the politics of the present time. Yes, it is up to the individuals.
But none of us can claim to be apolitical.
A
poet is also the product of his or her time. Time shapes our individualities in
various manners. As a poet or a writer, if we want to remain aloof from
anything political, we'll end up producing rubbish, which will never be
considered as literature at all. A poet must be responsive to his or her
surroundings, to gather the true momentum of contemporary times. It'll help the
poet to find out the individual and an independent voice. Without which none
can be a true poet. So, in a sense, working with poetry can never be
apolitical. Again, certainly, it doesn't mean a poet must join politics or
should remain politically active. But certainly, a poet should not be
apolitical. Otherwise, a poet can never touch that essential human chords,
which bring poetry alive. No, we are not making any framework, how to be a poet
or how to write poetry, etc. We are only considering the facts because without
becoming responsive to the present situations around one's space and time, one
can never produce literature at all. We mean true literature. Not anything
published in print or web. Unfortunately, if we fathom deep into the present
trends of literary activities, we'll find out too many worthless productions
claimed to be literature. These productions have no connections with the
present time. These are mostly rootless structures devoid of human compassion
and it's complexities. Not all the write-ups are literature. Even most of the
poems that have been written every day in and around our literary mediums are
just like this. Rootless and devoid of social connectivity. Lifeless and devoid
of spiritual essence. Worthless and devoid of true soul. Yes, the soul is
missing from most of the poems. These cannot vibrate and cannot touch readers'
souls. Yet these worthless publications can also become popular if the almighty
media wants. And we the people wish to rush forward following these media
hypes. So, our literature is also into the overwhelming grip of media. Poet
People Poetry nothing is now independent. Everything is dancing into the tuning
set up by media, according to its interests. Now the only question remains, how
can an individual deal with this overwhelming situation? We do not think we can
formulate any mechanism to guide everyone. It is not our duty or
responsibility. We have no right to guide anyone. We can only raise our voice,
put forward our deep concerns with honest propensity. It is up to every
individual, how to respond to this confusing time. How to deal with the media
propaganda. How to save individual independence. And how to keep up the eternal
torchlight of literature. How to preserve the soul of literary works. How to
remain honest without becoming a hypocrite or fool enough to board the
bandwagon of media hype.
NilavroNill Shoovro
From The
Editorial Desk
OPA
A
WORLDWIDE
WRITERS’ WEB
PRESENTATION!
PUBLISHED
BY
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OUR
POETRY ARCHIVE
ONLINE MONTHLY POETRY JOURNAL
https://ourpoetryarchive.blogspot.com
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