MAY 2019
ALICJA KUBERSKA: What does poetry mean to you?
SHAMENAZ: I believe in
Wordworthian ideology, “Poetry is a spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings,
where emotions recollect in tranquillity.” I think verses are eternal and
beautiful when it comes out from your heart and soul, when words come abruptly
from your mouth and not by planned way.
ALICJA KUBERSKA: What’s according to you the
meaning of poetry in the contemporary world?
SHAMENAZ: I think in the
contemporary world more and more people are writing poems, focussing on poems
and they are taking it a tool against social injustice, humanitarian crisis. Many
people are using poetry as a tool of resistance against racism, oppression and
subjugation which is a positive sign.
ALICJA KUBERSKA:
Can you describe your creative process while writing a new poem?
SHAMENAZ: For me poetry means spontaneous overflow of words transformed by your own
powerful emotions. So for me it is easier to write as per I feel or as per
situations. I feel it difficult to write when I am given a theme because not
all time I can mould emotions as per the theme. For me poetry is something with
should come out from your heart and soul.
ALICJA KUBERSKA:
Did it happen to you that a poem was just your dream?
SHAMENAZ: Yes definitely, when I was a
teenager I had composed some poems but in the present some years back I use to
wonder that how so many people are writing poems because it was difficult for
me to compose. Though I was writing as that time but basically it was related
to my research work or on women issues but it mostly it was academics. But when
Nepal earthquake happened and I saw the sufferings of the Nepalis then some
poems were abruptly composed by me and later when I saw the Syrian refugee
crisis then I composed many poems.
ALICJA KUBERSKA: Tell us about your inspiration.
What’re the most important subjects to you?
SHAMENAZ: My Dad has always been
my inspiration. He used to compose poems in Urdu language but unfortunately he
died when I was just 3 years old but by reading his verses I had always felt
motivated though I took up writing poems very late. I write on various
humanitarian issues existing in the contemporary world relating to human
existence like women issues, refugee crisis, racism, terrorism, resistance etc.
MARIA MIRAGLIA:
Which were the emotions that inspired your first verses?
SHAMENAZ : As I have told earlier
it was the tragedy of Nepal’s earthquake which inspired me and I composed my
first two verses on it.
MARIA MIRAGLIA: Was your aspiration to become a poet or did
all happen by chance?
SHAMENAZ: Yes it happened by
chance. I was writing from a long time on various women issues existing in our
society. I am a PhD holder in English literature and the topic of my thesis was
related to South Asian feminism so I was very much interested in women writing.
My poetic journey began accidently in
2015.
MARIA MIRAGLIA:
Who is the first person you read your poems to and why?
SHAMENAZ : Actually, when I
started writing I was not confident enough to read my poems in front of
somebody because I use to consider my amateur and beginner so I just posted it
on facebook and the response I got was tremendous which inspired me to write
further.
MARIA MIRAGLIA:
Have you published any poetic anthology, if so what did you feel the
first time you got it in your hands?
SHAMENAZ : Though I contributed
to many poetry anthology across the globe but it was Feeling With You with Armeli Quezon which was my first edited
anthology, the second was The Celebration
of Voices with Deborah Brooks Landford consisting mine and hers poems. My
third was a solo book, Shades of Life
after that I edited 4 anthologies Women
Poets Within and Beyond Shores Volume I, II & III and Verses
on Racism, Resistance and Refugee Crisis. My two anthologies, Feminist Voices: An Anthology Against Rape
and Sexual Molestation and a multilingual anthology, Camps of Resistance and Consciousness in under publication.
MARIA MIRAGLIA:
Who are the poets you prefer reading? Do you get inspiration from them?
SHAMENAZ : I prefer reading old
English British poets and Urdu and Hindi poets from Indian sub-continent. Yes I
always feel inspired by reading classical poets because it gives me strength to
compose more.
APRILIA ZANK:
How important is accessibility of meaning to you? Do you challenge the
readers to work hard to decipher your poems, or do you prefer transparency of
meaning?
SHAMENAZ : Nowadays poets mostly writes
in simple language which is quite accessible to all. As far as I am concerned I
believe in transparency
of meaning.
APRILIA ZANK:
What kind of poems do you write mostly? Do you have recurring themes, or
are all your poems unique?
SHAMENAZ : I write on various
humanitarian issues existing in the contemporary world relating to human
existence like women issues, refugee crisis, racism, terrorism, resistance etc.
Mostly they are on recurring themes but I have also composed on strong women
like Razia Sultan, who was the first woman who sat on the throne.
APRILIA ZANK:
Do you think your poetry is typically feminine / masculine? If yes, in
what way?
SHAMENAZ: No they are on
multifarious themes as I have already discussed above.
APRILIA ZANK:
In what way is your poetry different from that of other poets?
SHAMENAZ : No, I think I also
write in the same manner as my fellow poets are writing in the contemporary
scenario. I don’t think I write in any exceptional way.
LEYLA IŞIK: What are the main factors to make poetry real
poetry?
SHAMENAZ : It is the emotions and
passions, the intensity to write for the betterment of humanity.
LEYLA IŞIK: Do you think imagery is important in poetry?
Where does the importance of imagery begin in a poem, where does it end?
SHAMENAZ : It was a time when
imagery was considered important but in the contemporary scenario it is not so
relevant. I myself have not used it much.
LEYLA IŞIK: What are the most used types of poetry in
your country?
SHAMENAZ : India being a
multi-cultural and multi-ethnic country with so many languages spoken here, so
you can’t fixed a boundary of literary culture because here every language has
its literature and in every literature poetry has a prominent place. So people
from different ethnic group and different language write poems on almost all
themes and subjects.
LEYLA IŞIK: What’s important to be a good poet? To write
good poems!
SHAMENAZ : I believe that some
people possess the talent of writing good piece of poetry since birth and some
people cultivate it by regular practicing. One should read more and more poems
of all poets of pasts and practice writing.
LEYLA IŞIK: Who are the most important poets and their
main properties nowadays?
SHAMENAZ : I think Rumi is the
mostly read poet around the world because of his mysticism. Then every country
has its great poets who possess certain qualities liked by its people. Now
because of translation we can read poems written in any language in the past as
well as present.
DEBORAH
BROOKS LANGFORD: Understanding poetry begins with visualizing
the central images in the poem. What do you see, taste, smell, hear, and feel?
What is the imagery of your poetry?
SHAMENAZ : I also try to write
poems which has universal appeal of humanity, love and brotherhood so when I
write on any such issue than I visual images related with the theme. For
example, when I wrote a poem on the Syrian refugee child, Aylan Kurdi who was
drowned in the sea while escaping from Syria then it was he the central image
in my mind and all the atrocities which he must have experienced.
DEBORAH
BROOKS LANGFORD: What is the mood of your poetry? (Or How does
it make you feel?)
SHAMENAZ : I write as per the
situation, so reaction is based on the situation.
DEBORAH
BROOKS LANGFORD: In your poetry who is the speaker of the
poem? Are you speaking to yourself or to others?
SHAMENAZ : In my poems, it is
mostly I who is the speaker and sometimes I speak to others whereas in some to
myself.
DEBORAH
BROOKS LANGFORD: What is the message of your poetry? What messages do your poetry convey?
SHAMENAZ : My message in my poems
are, ‘love and respect each other, spread peace and happiness and make this
world a better place, let not hate win us.
DEBORAH
BROOKS LANGFORD: Does the internet and social media
contribute to the success of your poetry? Is this the reason you write for?
SHAMENAZ : Yes internet and social media are
contributing to a great extent to the success of your poetry as more and more
poets around the globe are connecting with
each other. Poets are getting national as well as international platform.
NILAVRONILL SHOOVRO: Thank you so much dear poet for the interview.
We would like to know your personal experience with OPA as a literary web
journal. Would you like to share anything more with our readers?
SHAMENAZ : You are welcome, it’s
my pleasure. Through OPA I was able to connect with larger audience and with
many international poets across the globe. I would just like to give a message
to all poets to raise their voice through their poems against all the
atrocities existing in the world in any form.
