NILAVRONILL SHOOVRO

 

Poetry demands human compassion. Without which poetry becomes just jumble of dead words, void, a lifeless entity. Who would like to read that poem which is just a formation of words and sound without any true soul? In addition, to bring out that soul in our poetry we need to establish a direct relation with our surroundings, with our present time with human compassion. Do you think keeping yourself insulated from the present world would bring that soul in your writing? I am afraid, that is not possible at all. Keeping ourselves insulated from the human sufferings, from the tragedies of political events; even if we try to be creative in literary field, all our creativity will be lifeless without any true soul within. Nobody would recall our poetical brilliance for a second time after going through that sort of caricature of poetry devoid of true soul. Moreover, to bring out that true soul in our literary creativity we have to be compassionate enough not only to feel for the sufferer but also to find out the true causes of the Evils that prevail in the everyday domain of our world. This is the responsibility of a true poet. Not that, our poetry will change the world, yet it can be reflective of our time and situation in a true manner. Where, reader can find a true soul, which can communicate with its time and sufferings.

 

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

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