Letters to editor
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December's Kritya is a joy as always, though a great sadness has stained my life. My sister died suddenly almost a week ago.
So I will keep my comments brief.

Farideh Hassanzadeh's interview with Billy Collins revealed much about his personality and not all of it is pleasant news. He is condescending to her, I thought, and to others as well, with his disingenuous quoting of Yeats. Collins is a Bush supporter. He knows what side his bread is buttered on. If we don't use tears as a lens to wash/watch the world, how can we call ourselves human, or poets!

Christina Pacosz
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Dear Editor,
Dr. Rati Saxena

Sometimes I need refer to dictionary to find the meaning of a word, which I am sure about it’s meaning . Reading Ms. Christina Pacosz’s letter to you I needed refer to dictionary to ponder, on the word “ Condescend”. She has written to you :
Farideh Hassanzadeh's interview with Billy Collins revealed much about his personality and not all of it is pleasant news. He is condescending to her, I thought, and to others as well, with his disingenuous quoting of Yeats. Collins is a Bush supporter. He knows what side his bread is buttered on. If we don't use tears as a lens to wash/watch the world, how can we call ourselves human, or poets!

According to the Longman dictionary ,condescend means :
” to behave as though one is better or more important than others .”
During my interviews with more than 20 world poets ,I admit that Billy Collins was the only poet who whenever I e-mailed him a question he answered immediately, despite being fully preoccupied with his great responsibilities.
He preferred to condense his answers instead of condescending , by keeping me in anticipation. I truly value his thoughtfulness.
As for Ms. Christina Pacosz’s next allegation :
” Collins is a Bush supporter. He knows what side his bread is buttered on” ,
I remind Billy’s answer to my question about war :
“Wars begin through greed and vanity and are continued through the insanity of nationalism in which the boundaries of a land replace God”.

Regarding this candid answer how can I believe that Billy Collins is supporter of greed and vanity ?

Anyway I appreciate Ms. Christina Pacosz, a fine poet , for reading carefully my interview , despite her sad demise of her dear sister . Merci upon her soul and give Ms. Christina Pacosz the patience and strength to tolerate and carry on.
Yours
Farideh Hassanzadeh ( Mostafavi )

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Dear Rati Saxena

For me finding Kritya was finding a very good friend. I hope I never lose it. Kritya gives refuge to poetry and thus offers us an evergreen shelter. The most vital part of Kritya, I think, is “Our Masters.” It is necessary for poetry magazines and yours is delightful. The other part I like very much is interviews. Not because great poets are interviewed. No. The questions which are raised are not clichéd and boring. On the contrary they are very vivid and candid. Through these questions the reader can imagine the poet in his private moments. This is important. Very important.
I also admire editor’s choice for reminding us of famous poets. And more than that, her effort in “poetry in our time “for introducing unknown poets. It is a sacred duty for a poetry magazine to find great poets of future. And finally in “my voice” in every issue I read something new in meaning and voice. I am thankful for myself and my friends. We hope in Kritya we read poems of today’s Latin American poets.

Respectfully
Nora
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I’m talking about your own poems I have read quite a few.One about an ant I liked and girls with kites I think one was called how did you get published I am hoping to get my poems out but don't know where to go to get them out.

ASHLEY WHITE
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Rati,

Thank you for the kind email, it made me happy to know what it meant to you. It also gave me the strength to complete the poetry revisions I had been putting off in order to send them to your journal. I hope you decide to publish some of the attached six poems because I would be honored to be included in Kritya. They are "[The lights keep burning out:]," "After Reading 'Eight Verses on Transforming the Mind'," "Yawns are Contagious Because We are Each Locked-Up Bored," "Looking Towards South Ferry," "This Room and Beyond," and "Portrait of a Man Departing." The untitled poem that begins "[The lights keep burning out:]" was recently included in a college publication distributed solely to the Columbia campus community. Also, the poem "Yawns are Contagious Because We are Each Locked-Up Bored" was included in a previous form in a small campus publication. I thought they would be a good fit for Kritya and I hope you can still use them. I've attached my submission as a word document in order to retain formatting; please let me know if you need it in another format. I would also be interested in writing a poetry review or criticism for your journal if you had a specific book or topic in mind. My poetry has been previously published in The Drexel Online Journal and Poems Niederngasse and I was awarded the Ford Poetry Prize from Columbia University for best collection of poems. I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Dave
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Dear Rati Saxena,

It was a wonderful surprise to receive the link to your beautiful web journal. I don't know how you knew to send it to me, but it brought great joy to my afternoon. I found its international and historical perspective to be a breath of fresh air. I also enjoyed your choice to publish many poems from each author to give the reader a better understanding of their work. Please add me to whatever mailing lists you might have for readings and events and please let me know if there is anything I might contribute.

Sincerely,

David Austerweil
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Dear Rati,

First, I want to apologize for the delay in responding to the latest issue of Kritya and to thank you for publishing Aliya's and my poems. It is such a delight to be included among so many wonderful poets from across time and space -- ancient translations to modern poetry from all around the world. I love this about Kritya: it reflects the universality of poetry. (And I thought the last issue was November's. I have been out of time lately, but I did not realize how far out!! Please excuse my oversight.)Second, congratulations on your 6th issue. Publishing a poetry magazine is a labor of love and I am grateful for your efforts. I did not realize you have no support. I appreciate the quote from Billy Collins, but I disagree. I believe many, if not most, poets see other poets as brothers and sisters, or at least as colleagues, not as rivals. I believe we dream of connecting with each other and with readers, not of other poets feeling jealous toward us. The thought of making that connection with strangers does not result in paranoia, but in satisfaction at the minimum. Perhaps I do not understand Billy Collins' meanings. I hope that is the case. However, Professor B.Hrdayakumari's idea that the significance of poetry is that we become part of it and it part of us is another kind of communion that poetry offers and having tasted it, we hunger for more.

I have not had time to read the rest of this issue and may not until the new year. Christmas in America is such a mixed holiday -- a time for family and friends that is both full of joy and of duties -- and often of sadness for losses, especially those who are no longer here to share this time with us. It seems to me that only children and the very lucky can face this holiday with unambiguous feelings. I will be very busy for the next two weeks preparing for the day and for my granddaughter's visit.
I will write again soon after Christmas and before if I find the time.

Best wishes for the new year,
Karen

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From web pages

Poetry & Mortality
Recently I discovered an richly rewarding poetry journal online that I wanted to share here. In a day or two when I have more time I must add it to my sidebar links. The Journal Kritya is edited by Dr Rati Saxena a Hindi poet, translator and Sanskrit scholar.

I especially found an interview with poet laureate Billy Collins that was in the most recent issue fascinating reading. In response to a question posed by the interviewer Collins hit upon something that I found a great deal of identity with. I have often talked of the connection between mortality and poetry and the following discourse by Collins I felt was putting the subject in profoundly simple but beautiful terms.

"The underlying theme of Western poetry is mortality. The theme of carpe diem asks us to seize the day because we have only a limited number of them. To see life through the lens of death is to approach the condition of gratitude for the gift (or simply the fact) of our existence. And as Wallace Stevens said, Death is the mother of beauty. Only the perishable can be beautiful, which is why we are unmoved by artificial flowers." ~ Billy Collins in an interview by the Iranian poet and translator Farideh Hassanzadeh [source]
posted by Michael

Kritya is six months old. Indeed a long way to come, for an E-Journal like “Kritya,” which does not have any type of support. While this is nothing less than a miracle for me, deep inside I feel that this miracle was worked by my readers. [...]

An unpredicted event took place with this issue. Kritya was planning to devote this issue to Telugu poetry (poetry of a south Indian language), but due to the inconvenience of our Telugu editor we could not work according to our plan. When I started collecting other submissions for this issue, to my surprise most of them were female voices. That is how in the section “Poetry in Our Time” 10 out of 12 poets are women. [...]
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