The
poets we recited were from the world over: India – 2, Britain – 2, Canada – 1, and
Vietnam – 1. Two were read in translation from Punjabi and Vietnamese. Four
poets were women, and two, men. The readers were equally split, 3 women and 3
men.
KumKum, Gopa and Kavita
The
sparse attendance did not diminish our zest for the poetry. The Canadian and
the Vietnamese were modern poets whose simple syntax, and direct speech, were
nevertheless powerful in what they conveyed. We recalled T. S. Eliot’s maxim: “Genuine poetry can communicate before it is
understood.”
Sunil and Sivaram
Gopa chose to read a poem which she had prepared for
the Sptember Browning session she missed. Its dramatic monologue form popularised by the
poet carries searing images and uses several of the devices of poetry:
alliteration, enjambment, rhyme, and metre.
Gopa
There were interesting sidelights on liberated women
in India who led life on their own terms and earned the grudging respect of
wider society.
Sivaram
Here are the readers at the end of the session.
Kavita, KumKum, Sivaram, Gopa, Sunil
