What is poetry?©

what is poetry?
a few have asked.
i don’t blame them
they know not.
rhyme and rhythm
is that all?
no my dears,
it’s not!

i write what I see
i write what I feel
i write about love
i write about hate
i write about incest
i write about rape
i write about idealism
i write about materialism

shorter verses
i love to write.
only way I can get
the message across.
scoring points
I think not.
Even if I was
why should it matter?

prose can be poetry,
poetry can be prose.
it is up to you
how you behold.
will go on writing
all that I can.
nothing will stop me
not even you.

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I wrote this defence of poetry. Someone criticised poetry which does not rhyme or has rhythm. For him it's not poetry. You can read his article here if you want.

He criticised certain networks too. As I do not agree and all of us can't be Keats, Burns, Brownings....this is my instant answer which I posted here.

Abandoned---Can I ask you why?

pleasure was yours, the pain is mine;

you choose to live, leaving me to die.

is it my fault, i came into being?

i didn’t have a choice, you had one.

why was i than abandoned by you?

if this ignominy is existence for me;

i would have preferred to die.

death i would have welcomed,

wholeheartedly within your womb!


(c)gautami.tripathy

~Sept 25, 2006

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I wrote this a few minutes back. Posting it here without any edits or refining it. It triggered in my mind after I wrote a reply on my book review post on The Scarlet Letter on a network.

In India, most of the babies who are born out of wedlock are abandoned and at times left to die unless someone finds them. And a girl child faces this even if she is born inside of wedlock. This is what such a baby would ask if given a chance to speak.

I too ask why......fully well knowing there aren't any answers.....

The first books that came into my mind after I was tagged for this "Book Meme"

I have been tagged by lotus reads for this book meme. I usually do not play for tags. But this one I will play along. Only because I read hell of a lot. My compulsive buying of books is more than my reading power. Too many books lying around to be read. Here I enumerate the first ones that come into my mind. I know I will not be able to do justice to this. But what the hell!


1. One book that changed your life?





Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. After reading that book, I quit thinking one person cannot change the world. One single entity can if she/he is determined enough. I read it the first time when I was 17 years old. I was half in love with Howard Roark for a long time afterwards. Maybe I am still searching for him. A must read book. I feel one must read all of Rand's book like I have done.




2. One book you have read more than once?




There are too many books, I read more than once. Three men in a boat by Jerome K. Jerome takes the cake though. I must have read it numerous times. I simply cannot get over it. It's too hilarious to be put down after you start it.



3. One book you would want on a desert island?








East of Eden by John Steinbeck. It sustains interest throughtout and is a great story of courage and survival. I need to read it yet again. What better place than a desert island?





4. One book that made you cry?


The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. It brings tears into my eyes even if I pick it up now. Very powerful touching kind of book.




5. One book that made you laugh?





Catch 22 by Joseph Heller is a satire of the times which has the power to make us laugh at human foibles and failings. Very intellectual kind of book with underlying humour and irony!






6. One book you wish had been written?

About how not to follow religion blindly by Pope Benedict! For obvious reasons!


7. One book you wish had never been written?




Men are from Mars, women are from Venus by John Gray. It is too cliched for the likes of me! One book I wish I had never bought. If I ever see John Gray, I will kill him with my bare hands.




8. One book you are currently reading?

Infact I am reading three books all at the same time. I always do.






The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishguro.









The unbearable Burden of Lightness by Milan Kundera. It is my 5th book by Kundera. It is as interesting as the others that I have read.









The scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. I got this book for a long time now. I got around to reading it now. As they say, better late than never.




I plan to write reviews for all three after I finish those.


9. One book you have been meaning to read?






The original version of Kamasutra by Vatsayan. Too many copies circulating. I want nothing but the best! Mind you, it's not a book on sexul positions. It is a treatise on love and sensuality.



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These are just a few of the books I have read, am reading and mean to read. I left out most of the non-fiction, political commentaries and silly detective novels(that I simply love!). Not to forget poets. I can only write so much here!


I enjoyed doing this. How could I miss a good thing? Thanks for tagging me, Lotus!

Am I supposed to tag too? Let me think! Ok, I tag homo escapeons, within without, jon aristides, Ghost Particle, frontier editor and david Israel. Hope you play it. If you don't it's ok with me!

But do indulge me!

Vacillations of the mind

Should we consider idealism dead

just because materialism has taken over?

Should humanism capitulate

to ruthless humanity?

Should love cease to exist

as hatred destroys love?

Must gentleness give way to hardness

as it’s too hard to care?

Does ugliness replace beauty

as ugliness fast expands?

Must life end in death

just because death exists?

Answering one/all in affirmation

speaks out loud and clear!

Where justice is controlled by injustice,

Hence thereby suicide is justified.

Protesting against evil, injustice,

inhumanity, godlessness.

Appealing for life,

our despair crying out loud.

For the very existence of life

Where do we go from here?

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Poetry is dead! You might as well live!

For some time, the poetic state is kind of gone. I don't know if it has gone for good. Words are just not forming in rhyme or rhythm. Forget about being lyrical.

Maybe GOD has other designs for me. Maybe HE/SHE wants me to be a prose writer!

As long God does not expect me to write about religion or George Bush, nothing wrong with HIS/HER assumptions!

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Go girl go, long way to go

Let the words/thoughts flow

Write whatever you deem right

Don't let your words give others a fright!

.......................................................................

HEEEYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Dried, shrivelled and dead

Thought I should be melodramatic here. I haven't been that that a long time time. This is kind of interesting. Am I turning into a new leaf? Do I like the new me? I have become too placid.

Time to say, GAUTAMI, BUCK UP! BE yourself! Does it mean, this almost gentle creature is not me? What the hell!!

I AM ME EVEN IF I SHUT UP, DON'T SPEAK A WORD OR DO NOT REACT AT ALL.

You have to accept me the way I am even if you don't like me.

AND PRAY DO TELL ME,WHY SHOULDN'T YOU LIKE ME!

Excuse me, what have you got to say for yourself?

Ranting time for me, I guess!

This is something else which makes me mad. Now what’s that, you will ask me. Rightly so...

I have been observing that people who leave the Indian shores (whatsoever reason they might cite, it’s mostly for the dollars!!) for greener pastures in USA, start berating India even before they land up there. The so-called educated lot with PG degrees and/or doctorates are the most vocal ones about highlighting the negative aspects of India even when they outside of it.

Those who have been brought up here, studied here, had the best of education here (India has one of the best education systems in the world) think nothing about bad mouthing the system, the infrastructure, the people, anything, everything. They even try camouflaging their India identities under Americanised names. They forget it is India which gave them that edge for what they are now and where they stand.

Why should one be ashamed of ones own place of birth? Which country does not have problems? Why run away from problems instead of trying to solve these problems? US or any other country might offer better life style but they still are foreigners there. They will always be second class citizens there, more so after 911.

If we go out of our country of birth for whatsoever reason, we become ambassadors of it. We should be proud of our country of origin. We must tell the world positive aspects of it too. Saying everything negative reflects poorly on us. If one can't be loyal to his/her own country how can he/she be loyal to anything else?

May be I am overeacting!!

(Un)fair me

An article at gather, one of the sites I write, set me thinking and I thought why not write about it? Carol Roach wrote a very thought provoking article It is all in the DNA or is it?.

Here she talks about racism in Canada. Where there are whites, blacks or coloureds as she says. I cannot comment on that but for what I have read or heard.

I will talk about what happens here in India. We do not have white or black skin here. We have what the Britishers called brown skin....different shades of it...from darker to lighter. I come under the darker shades. This is called dusky complexion over here.

Despite not having white skin...most or I should say almost all....prefer fair skin over dark one. I have told on my face by the so-called educated people...wish you were fairer.

My skin colour never bothered me. But I do feel rage when I come across such mentality. Is it all I am......my skin colour? For Indians definition of beauty starts and ends with fairer skin. No wonder the skin whiteners(here they call those fairness creams) do a brisk business. As I shun those products, I have been told I am crazy.

At the end of the day...everything comes down to the colour of your skin....though we do not have white or blacks amongst us.

Indians are one of the most racist people in this world however much they deny it. Even on the issue of colour we are divided. Fair is in, (un)fair is out!!

Words

Words are redundant
When I converse with you
Words are not needed
When I speak to you
Words seem inadequate
When I communicate with you

I know you hear me
As my silences speak
When I am silent
I say the most
I talk to you in my mind
You hear me in your head

Yet another set of serial blasts in Mumbai

Yesterday in Malegaon, Mumbai, there were serial blasts which took place sometime during the Friday Prayers of the muslims. As of last count 37 were killed and 100 injured , most of those being children.

There was utter chaos and people just ran hither and thither unmindful of the dead. Uncaring if they stepped on anyone. They just ran for their lives.Maybe we have indeed become insensitive. Now we do not even give a little thoughts for others.

Intelligence bureau had predicted something like this was going to happen. And it did. Despite the alert, there were no police force to speak of. New bicycles were used for the blast. No one knows why/how/where/when.

I only ask what do the terrorists get out of attacking innocent people? Will they ever stop? Why doesn't our govt come heavy on the hardliners? How many innocents get killed before our govt wakes up? I feel so sad for the random acts of violence. There is a hype for days and then its all calm until the next time.

This time the attacks were in an area full of working class population. Most of the deads were poor and destitute who had come for alms.

What God tells us to maim and kill? What religion teaches this? What have the innocents done to deserve this? The day we are able to answer these questions, we might find peace, both within ourselves and the world.

Will that happen? Who knows....Does any of the power that are, care?

Duplicity

How can you possibly define tangibility?
Your advice smacks of duplicity.
While your own words lack clarity

For someone who speaks in riddles,
From unpleasantness he twiddles
He plays around words and fiddles

Finer feelings, for you, are out of reach
My heart and soul, you tried to breach
You do not have any right to preach

For what you seek, I can never be
By your insensitivity you set me free
Life without you now, is filled with glee.

Beyond Words

How is love defined?
Timeless, transcendent
Aeons confined in time

Unknown Force

total strangers
pulled by unknown force
passions detonate

Muse is dead! Long live the muse!

unable to think of words
my mind is in shreds

heart seems to be in distress
or is it just plain stress?

where has my muse fled?
suppose it is simply dead!!

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I had not been able to write verses for sometime now. My mind simply refused to function that way. It seems that has passed. Now I am back to penning my short verses.

Hounded

my silhouette and i,
close yet far away
hounding each other

Praise where it is due

Most of the time we curse and crib about how the govt organisations work. We only have complaints about them. How they turn up late. And when they do, they are never there on their seats.

Today I have something good to say. I took a leave from school. My passport is up for renewal. I reached the regional passport office well before time. Most of times, there is a long queue. But now they have decentralised it. There is one in East Delhi near my place. It opens at 9 am but I was there at 8.30 am. I could see only two others waiting. We compared notes. Asking each other whatever queries we had. Now I saw one of the officials turning up around 8.35 am, others following soon enough. They were in their seats in no time. Each form takes around 20-30 minutes to scrutinise. I got a bank draft made and submitted my form. As I was the only female, the other two before me let me submit my form first despite my protests. The girl who was scrutinising the applications was very cordial and helpful. She stamped my old passport, cancelling it, and returning it to me. At the next window, I got a receipt for the submission of my form. I was back home before 10 am. I had been thinking it will take all day long before I started.

The point is I met people in a govt organisation who started their work well before time and those who still are chivalrous towards a female.

It kind of restored my faith in humanity which had taken a beating recently.

Cogitation

I gave it much thought before writing it here. I don't want to get into blog wars. I steer clear of it. This time too I will only say what I have to, on my blog. Blog wars tend to get ugly. Suddenly every one gets nasty. A few take sides. Thats human nature, I guess. I am neither against one or nor for the other. I am not indifferent but I refuse to comment either way. As I say, our thoughts are our own. If one thinks the worst of me, so be it. I know I did not do anything to merit it.

The point is, I got lots of anonymous comments on my blog even though I stayed away from it. After the initial curiosity, I kind of closed the chapter. That did not stop a few from insulting me. A few assumed lots of stuff I never ever said or wrote, anonymously or otherwise. True, I do have some inkling who posted those but its not for me to say so. How can I do that? It's not my place. As I did not write those comments, I do have a right to say something in my defence. Why did a few assume I started it? How did I do that? Why would I do that? What do I get out of that? Thats one question, all of us need to ask ourselves.

Heaping insults on me or any other human being, how does it help a cause? We will have differences of opinions. I feel we should have that. It makes us grow in all directions, it reflects on our perceptions. Diversity should be accepted if not welcomed. Why do we assume that everyone else should think the way we do?

It was kind of interesting. Someone who used to praise my short verses, ended up saying the opposite here(or should I say he was downright insulting?) because he was piqued. Why? Because he did not like me to post one of my works with a picture. How can he decide what I post or what I do not? Poetry is deeply personal. I do not write to please anyone. Most of my poetry, I write for my own pleasure. I put those on my blog. I do not cater to anyones whims. Good or bad, its not for you to say. Only a very few have that deeper knowledge to get into the finer nuances of poetry. I can count only one or two people in that way.. All others are just as good or bad as me.

Critiques are welcome. Negativity is not. What you put on your blog is yours. What I put on my blog is my own. I hope all of us understand that. As I said before, if we can't be adult enough to accept that then let us be childish and not be friends any more.

Godsend

It does seem Godsend!
How I have longed for it;
this much needed weekend!

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After posting a book review at my reading room blog and about switches and sockets at my random thoughts blog, I kind of thought why not post here too!