My voice
Whenever we talk about poetry, we find ourselves quoting some
great poet or other to prove ourselves. I feel that it is time
we opened our ears to those young poets and poetry- lovers, who
are taking poetry to our future. I got a mail from Ajey, a young
poet from Kelang ( Ladakh), who lives in a place which is
covered with snow at least four months in a year, getting any
vegetation is a big luxury for him. Still in spite of frequent
power failures, he takes a conscious effort to read poetry
published in the internet. He writes even in the absence of
flowers. His letter is in Hindi and published in the Hindi
section of Kritya. Here I want to draw attention to his thoughts
on poetry, and open a forum for other poets to join the
discussion.
Ajey says-
*I do not think that poetry is something called God’s gift, I
feel it is a way of expression. Every one likes to express
himself/ herself. People use different mediums to express
themselves, some express in terms of wealth, some in terms of
their physical appearance, some in terms of fashion and some in
terms of power; even nature expresses itself in a variety of
ways. The mountains around us may express themselves differently
in accordance with their geographical position, time of the day
etc. Poetry too, is purely a means of expressing oneself.
**
I like poetry from childhood, but I could never enjoy the
explanation of teachers, I felt that they were making poetry
more complicated. Poetry should be self explanatory, otherwise
there is no use reading it. It should come to the reader as
music, as painting or as experience.
We like all great poets because of these qualities.
***
Some say that they cannot understand poetry, as
if poetry is to be understood!
As if some body is forcing them to understand poetry!! Poetry is
related to our sensitivity and until we are sensitive, we can’t
understand poetry, that’s what I feel.
****
Poetry is thought-provoking but not bundles of thoughts. It
needs to be handled carefully.
What I want to say is that Ajey is not saying anything different
from what we ourselves feel sometimes, but still we can keep
these points in mind and engage in fruitful discussion.
Kritya was supposed to come with a number of good poems from
different parts of the world, with emphasis on Telugu poetry of
our time. But unfortunately at the last moment, the computer
hard disc got out of order and Kritya lost all submissions
including mail id. It is foolishness to believe in machines, but
sometimes we go for it. I apologize to all those poets whom
Kritya is not able to publish, in spite of accepting
submissions. I request them to send their poetry for the next
issue.
This time Kritya is coming with Meera, the great Indian poet, in
the section Our Masters, and Rilke as Editors Choice, ( I know
he is the choice of every poetry lover) . In the section, In the
Name of Poetry we are reading Rumi, ( oh what else do we want
!!!)
A number of contemporary poets are with us in the section—Poetry
in Our Time.
I think that even though Kriya had a big loss due to machine
failure, its readers will not have any loss while reading it.
Friends, Kritya is again in your hands. I will be glad to get
your response to this issue.
The paintings
depicted here in this issue are by a well-known young artist
from India, Vijendra S. Vij. He has given these paintings for
the maintenance of Kritya as it is a non- profit-making journal.
Any one who is interested in buying the original paintings can
contact the editor of Kritya or Vijendra himself. His contact
number is +91 9810464520.
The “sketches “ illustrated on
pages along with poetry / articles are drawn by late Prabhakar
and his artist son Roshan. Kritya hopes and wishes well for the
artistic journey of Roshan.
Other pictures and borders
are made by the editor
herself.
Rati Saxena
