Post by Thoithoi O'Cottage on May 27, 2014 11:56:44 GMT 5.5
Oja Sri Lekhak is one of the poets I met while I was home recently. We had a lunch party (19 May 2014) at the poet MB Meme's, the others at the party being the sculptor Bino Laishram, the painter Sobita Naorem and the tailor Rina. The sculptor, and painter Premjit Pukhrambam did not turn up. We hear he went to Minou.
Before lunch, Sri Lekhak told me about a kind of poetry he would like to write "in future tense". His project is "How to write poetry in future tense?" Lekhak was cagey about it, and I did not want to be very inquisitive. But I said I did not get it all--"Future tense in what sense? Grammatically future tense lines? Or about events presented as if it would happen in future (as or not as a prediction in relation to our existential reality)? Flashback (an element of the stream of consciousness) in fiction and movies (and also in some poetry) deals with the past. Based on flashback, now we have the concept of flash forward, which takes readers/viewers into a moment not yet come. I was just wondering aloud about "poetry in future tense", and Sri Lekhak did not step forward to speak more about his new poetics. I did not mean him to either.
"What poets do to write poetry is nothing but to find an agent--the agent of their poems", Sri Lekhak said another moment.
"Would you kindly elaborate on it?" Intrigued, I asked.
Hills, lakes, rivers, green valleys, green leaves--these are the agents of romantic poems, Sri Lekhak explained. How can one write romantic poetry with the agency of hammers, nails, bulldozers, exploded buildings, etc.? I got his sense. This is what all poets do. This is not a new idea, but his conceptualization of the practice in the term "agent" is quite praiseworthy--a term packs an experience up neatly. What a poet wants to convey in the poem is processed through some things or the other visible in the poem--images and metaphors. The kind of sensibility of the poet determines the kind of agent (images and metaphors) for his/her poem. The sense the poet makes out of his/her sources is conveyed through images and metaphors, and as the images and the metaphors now do conduct the information (or overall significance) of the poem, they become the poem's agent. For example, in my own lines (from Gharles Wander's Piligrimage) below
"What is new in world poetry in recent years?" Sri Lekhak asked. He always keep looking for the new. His poetic journey itself shows that. Phairelgi Angaoba Leichil, his first poetry collection, is quite romantic. Then quickly leaving behind this form, he moves to Hingliba Meesinggi Catalogue, and then to Yaoroudagi Sangaina Machi Kekru Thoktri, which introduced abstract poems and letter poems, and then to his two recent experimental long poetry books, Apomba Sel Mayek and Asatpa Sel Mayek. He did not stay on one kind of poetry long, but he move from one poetry to another so fast that his poetries seem (at least to critics) to present themselves as too vague as kinds/categories. Petrachand wrote sonnets. Shakespeare continued it, and since then several many poets have contributed to the tradition. Similarly, epic poetry, and haiku and many other poetic forms also have established their formal traditions. For there to be a formal tradition, for the component poems of the tradition to distinguish themselves from chance occurrences, there needs to be a substantial number of poems of similar character making up the tradition. Sri Lekhak's groups of poems seem to me to be too abrupt to establish themselves as a formal tradition. This is the disadvantage of being too fast in one's experiments.
I briefed him on what is new in world poetry scene in recent years.
Sri Lekhak (April 2014) [Photo: Doren Mayanglambam of PhotoMax, Kakching]
"What poets do to write poetry is nothing but to find an agent--the agent of their poems", Sri Lekhak said another moment.
"Would you kindly elaborate on it?" Intrigued, I asked.
Hills, lakes, rivers, green valleys, green leaves--these are the agents of romantic poems, Sri Lekhak explained. How can one write romantic poetry with the agency of hammers, nails, bulldozers, exploded buildings, etc.? I got his sense. This is what all poets do. This is not a new idea, but his conceptualization of the practice in the term "agent" is quite praiseworthy--a term packs an experience up neatly. What a poet wants to convey in the poem is processed through some things or the other visible in the poem--images and metaphors. The kind of sensibility of the poet determines the kind of agent (images and metaphors) for his/her poem. The sense the poet makes out of his/her sources is conveyed through images and metaphors, and as the images and the metaphors now do conduct the information (or overall significance) of the poem, they become the poem's agent. For example, in my own lines (from Gharles Wander's Piligrimage) below
Under the lamps like cattle in heavy silence out in the rainsthe sensibility of the poem is conducted through the agency of "lamps like cattle in heavy silence out int the rains", and "magic bubble trapping all my pains, fears in it" among others.
Catching the drops in brown halos against darkness
And yellowing the puddles muddied by the pattering
Walking wet with the wind away from home
Thinking about the world so complex, so restless
About deaths, wars, spies, secessions and elections
Once in a while my severe hernia reminding me
Of an operation I am too afraid to go through
But want to jump over and land beyond it
Wishing for a magic bubble trapping all my pains, fears in it.
"What is new in world poetry in recent years?" Sri Lekhak asked. He always keep looking for the new. His poetic journey itself shows that. Phairelgi Angaoba Leichil, his first poetry collection, is quite romantic. Then quickly leaving behind this form, he moves to Hingliba Meesinggi Catalogue, and then to Yaoroudagi Sangaina Machi Kekru Thoktri, which introduced abstract poems and letter poems, and then to his two recent experimental long poetry books, Apomba Sel Mayek and Asatpa Sel Mayek. He did not stay on one kind of poetry long, but he move from one poetry to another so fast that his poetries seem (at least to critics) to present themselves as too vague as kinds/categories. Petrachand wrote sonnets. Shakespeare continued it, and since then several many poets have contributed to the tradition. Similarly, epic poetry, and haiku and many other poetic forms also have established their formal traditions. For there to be a formal tradition, for the component poems of the tradition to distinguish themselves from chance occurrences, there needs to be a substantial number of poems of similar character making up the tradition. Sri Lekhak's groups of poems seem to me to be too abrupt to establish themselves as a formal tradition. This is the disadvantage of being too fast in one's experiments.
I briefed him on what is new in world poetry scene in recent years.