My voice
At the time of conception a poet never thinks about poetry.
Thoughts take place after creation. That is mostly not from the
creator but from the creation. I do not know whether Poetry
indulges in the same thoughts as ours - who we are, from where
we come or where our journey will end. We know that these
questions are worthless as the answers narrow the depth of
curiosity, still we ask ourselves. While searching for poetry, I
happened to come across some wonderful thoughts by a poet. Let
me share it-
….Instead of asking ' What and Poetry?’ one should ask 'When and
Poetry?’ and/or 'Where, Is and Poetry? There is a symbiotic
relationship between the roles, and with only one, poetry simply
does not happen. The locality, in time-continuum existence, and
transcendence of meaning in poetry depend on both these
agencies. Both are essential components. Poetry does not know
the causes and effects; it is something that only comes into
being when it is written-AND-read. The reader's function, in the
assembling of poetry, is to unlock the poem the writer has
pre-ordained and free it into the source-pool of the Literature Generalis, the vast body of collective literature. When a poem
is not read it stays what it was, a germ that infected the brain
of the writer. Unread writers (unwritten readers) are of a
leprous kind, infected by deadly incubations and therefore
dangerous.
( By Argo Spier, author of
Machines of Art
and the driving force behind the
Mythological Argoboat Workspace.
His Complete Works of poetry and prose is accessable for private
and student use from his
Homepage )
…..
I remember the words of a doctor friend of mine regarding
diseases. Once I asked her why we get sick, why so many diseases
trouble us. She replied that it was something they were never
taught. We know when a particular disease enters our body but we
do not know why they choose to do so. Neither do we know why we
should get sick, why we die? I remember, my doctor friend is
very religious. Maybe she is searching the meaning of death in
faith. I felt as though she was talking about poetry, not of
diseases.
I do not say that poetry is a disease, but there is no doubt
poetry is like a disease for the poet, it comes without telling
her the cause. There are a number topics on which we can
discuss, like why is poetry? When is poetry? And what can be
poetry? A list of questions is ready which merits discussion.
Kritya is inviting thoughts on this topic.
Now Kritya is taking care of herself, a number of submissions
are pouring in every month, or it may be said that poets are
sustaining Kritya. Kritya is thankful to them.
Kritya is very close to completing one year, this is the ninth
issue. This time we have a number of good translations. A set of
good translations of old Chinese poetry is provided by Karen
Bowden and Aliya Ma Lynn with beautiful calligraphy. Moreover,
there is a beautiful translation of Sankara the great thinker,
philosopher and poet of ancient India, which is a wonderful
combination for Our Masters section. ,class="tip" dir="ltr">
In the section Editors Choice we again have a smart combination, Neruda’s love poems and Kamala Das’s love-hate poems.
In The Name Of Poetry has A. Esmailpour talking about
‘Unification of Nationality and Modernity: its Reflection in
poetry’ and Rati Saxena sharing her experience about ‘Tradition
and modernity about freedom struggle in Indian literature.’
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The section Poetry in Our Time lays out a good selection of
poetry from different parts of the world.
I hope and wish Kritya’s readers will enjoy these poems.
Once again young artist Vijendra Vij has given his paintings to
Kritya; it is unfortunate that we have not been able to sell any
of his paintings. Sketches are again memories of Prabhakaran, I
feel that his soul is with Kritya.
Once again Kritya is grateful to all of you for your
wholehearted support and encouragement.
Rati Saxena
