NILAVRONILL SHOOVRO

 

Challenges Of Poetry In New Normal 

Each day is passing as an extension of our lifetime. As if any day we can have our last breath in this world. Not that we were immortal before the pandemic. But our everyday life was not like today. With a nagging fear of getting infected and eventually waiting for immediate death. This fear of infection is indeed infectious. Even vaccination cannot guarantee immunity with hundred percent assurance. Yet we are hoping for survival and still living with the ultimate hope to return to our normal life of a pre-pandemic era. Many are jokingly coining BC with ‘before covid’ and AC with ‘after covid’. Indeed, it seems more plausible that the world will never return to the normalcy of before covid era. Already we are being taught another new terminology ‘new normal’. That is, since 2020 we have to accept all the abnormalities as new normal. So, it is clear that new world order and the way of everyday life are emerging out of this pandemic. We can dislike it, but cannot deny it. Not only do we have to accept it, but also, we have to adjust ourselves to this new world order and the conditions of surviving.

Personally, all these are making a huge impact on each of us. I don’t know anybody, who’ll deny this fact. Even in our subconscious mind, a new mosaic is evolving. We may not be aware of that. Still, this mosaic will eventually shape our conscious minds as well. One can say, human psychology will not remain the same as in the pre-pandemic era. Everything around us is now evolving at an unprecedented pace. Yes, even our literature will have to face all these new challenges of upcoming times as well. Poets and writers around the world are also going through this phase of endurance tests round the clock. I hope words and phrases will go through a considerable reexamination and redesigning before settling down to incorporates all these changes and abnormalities. A new dimension of literature may emerge in near future to deal with all these. Poets and writers as well will have to adjust themselves to the upcoming changes in their subconscious level. Poetry is a manifestation of our subconscious mind constantly struggling with the ground realities of our individual life. As an individual, I strongly adhere to this idea. Maybe others will not agree with it. If we go through human history from down memory lane and dive deep into the whirlwind of existence, I believe each poet had experienced the same in their lifetime. Yes, every time we have to fine-tune our individualities with our social context and universal time as well. Without which, not a single word can be written.

If we study poetry along with different periods of time, we’ll find poetry is constantly reshaping itself according to the norms and conditions of its surrounding times. So, with this emerging new normalcy of life in post covid era…new forms of poetry will reshape world literature. I hope nobody would wrongly interpret my words assuming I’m in support of the establishments that rule the world. Poetry as well as literature that supports the establishments and propagates the ruler’s interests can never survive its time. History teaches us so. Whenever I say, poetry reshapes itself according to the norms and conditions of its surrounding times; that doesn’t necessarily mean it has to comply with established rules and the conditions. That only means how poetry reacts with its surrounding. Poetry can never sit idle without reacting with the changing scenarios or with the rules and norms established by the power. It always raises its voice of dissent and doubts. It tries to reexamine the established or emerging norms and forms. On a continuous note, it tries to evaluate the present with the past, seeking the right equations of expressing the truth. The ultimate goal of poetry is to express the truth. The eternal truth in reactions with the temporal conditions of existence. So, with this emerging new normalcy of life; poetry will also have to re-engage itself in conversation with this present time. I strongly believe to go on with poetical experiments, a poet must have to associate himself or herself with these sorts of hypotheses even if one believes that poetry is an intimate conversation with the individual soul.

None can live alone. Even our soul is tied up with the universal soul. As we live in society. Again, our soul is also tied up with the eternal soul. So, we can never alienate ourselves from our fellow beings, from the conditions of their existence. Therefore, this emerging new normal world order will certainly engage us in constant debates with all these events that occur around us. A poet is essentially a compassionate being. He can never remain aloof. He or she has to respond with the temporal time. And this mode of response will bring out the literary brilliance in form of poetry or any other literary forms. Especially poetry demands all these from a poet. A spontaneous explosion of personal emotions devoid of internal and external exchanges of debates around universal time can never create true poetry. And with this pandemic and with the emerging new normal world, a poet has to re-engage himself or herself with the essence of his or her changing time. If one wishes to remain creative. Poetry is all about remaining creative forever.

So, we with our limited resources and capacity always try to publish writings of the creative poets around the world. We hope this 76^th issue of Our Poetry Archive will also get international attention with much enthusiasm. This month we are presenting poet ROMANESCU SALOMEEA of Romania as the poet of the month. In this issue we are presenting an interview of the poet exclusively for our readers. Also, we have arranged the publication of the 7th volume of the annual anthology ‘MIDNIGHT MOMENTS’ scheduled to be published this July 2021.

NilavroNill Shoovro

From The Editorial Desk

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