PPP Ezine Vol1, Issue 1, June 2017
It’s difficult to choose and pick poems for an anthologist when so many alternatives, and good ones at that, are available at any given point of time. It becomes even more difficult when the selection is for a poetry ezine as the poets are contemporary and the decision has to be made on poetry hitherto unread, unheard and un-judged.
Of course, it’s refreshing, invigorating and pleasant to know that so many good people are taking (stealing, should I say) time from out of their modern day urban everyday life in order to create a thing of beauty. Look at the profile of the poets in this issue. There are students, teachers, professionals and amateurs, full-time and occasional writers and they take pride in what they do, and identify themselves as poets.
It’s a privilege, and a pleasant one, to get a chance to get exposed to so many novel and valuable ideas arranged in a way that declares:
Though this be common man’s language, and the words used are of everyday use, the syntax too is quite familiar, the overall effect is not at all common, because the urn, well-wrought, is no more just the metal or marble it is made of.
This issue has the following poems:
Santiago by Richard Lutman
De- branched or Not? by Sandeep Kumar Mishra
Requiem to Peace by Tejasvi Saxena
A Rainy Night (Haiku sequence) by James G. Piatt
Land of my Dream by Yajnaseni Mukherjee
A Lonely Tree by Asha Visvas
Night Bird by Sergio A. Ortiz
The Breathing Days by Lynn White
Loosening Ties by Suryasri Saha.
The Yellow Streetlight by Mrinalini Raj
De- branched or Not? by Sandeep Kumar Mishra
Requiem to Peace by Tejasvi Saxena
A Rainy Night (Haiku sequence) by James G. Piatt
Land of my Dream by Yajnaseni Mukherjee
A Lonely Tree by Asha Visvas
Night Bird by Sergio A. Ortiz
The Breathing Days by Lynn White
Loosening Ties by Suryasri Saha.
The Yellow Streetlight by Mrinalini Raj
About the Poets
Richard Lutman has a MFA in Writing from Vermont College. He has taught composition and literature courses at Rhode Island Community College, Fairfield University, The Learning Connection in Providence, Rhode Island, and short story classes as part of Coastal Carolina University’s Lifelong Learning program. He has published over two dozen short stories, three chapbooks, two novellas and one nonfiction book. He was a 2008 Pushcart nominee in fiction and the recipient of national awards for his non-fiction, short stories and screenplays. His first novel was published in May of 2016. His web site is: www.patchofdirt.net
Sandeep Kumar Mishra is a writer, poet, and lecturer in English Literature. Last year his work published in more than 50 national and international magazines. He has edited a collection of poems by various poets – Pearls (2002) and written a professional guidebook –How to Be (2016) and a collection of poems and art- Feel My Heart (2016).
Tejasvi Saxena hails from New Delhi, India. He is a dabbler in photography, a poet in solitude and thinker in all seasons. He loves the company of books, kids, nature, music, food and dogs. His works have been published in Muse India, Visual Verse, Duane’s PoeTree, Indian Periodical, Dissident Voice Journal, Tuck Magazine, Spillwords, Scarlet Leaf Review, Random Poem Tree, Peeking Cat Poetry, Phenomenal Literature, The Avocet Review and Thumbprint Magazine. He is on instagram @ Tejasvisaxena.
James G. Piatt has published 4 novels, “The Ideal Society,” (2012), “The Monk,” (2013), “The Nostradamus Conspiracy,” (2015), and Archibald McDougle PI: An Archie McDougle Mystery (2017), 3 collections of poetry, “The Silent Pond,” (2012), “Ancient Rhythms,” (2014), and “Light” (2016), and over 1,000 poems, 35 short stories, and 7 essays. His poems have been nominated for pushcart and best of web awards, and many were published in The Top 100 Poems of 2016, 2015, & 2014 Anthologies, and the 2017 Poet’s Showcase and Yearbook. His fourth collection of poetry will be released this year.
Yajnaseni Mukherjee speaks three languages, reads and writes poems in two, and dreams in one. She has always been a poet. She writes poems whenever she is not busy doing so many other mundane things. She also gets joy in teaching poetry and literature to University students.
Asha Viswas is a former Professor of English, Benaras Hindu University, Varanasi ,India. She has also taught at Aligarh and at the University of Calabar, Nigeria. She has published three collections of poems. The first collection Melting Memories was published in 1996 [Delhi]. For this she was awarded Michael Madhusudan Academy Award [Kolkatta] in 1997. Her second collection Mortgaged Moorings [writers workshop, Kolkatta] was published in 2001. For this she was given the Editors’ Choice Award by the International Library of Poetry , U.S.A. IN 2003.Her third collection of poems was published in 2011 [Kolkata].
Her poems have featured in the shortlist anthology of all India poetry competition organized by the British council and the poetry Society India , Slug fest [U.S.A.] , The Mawaheb International [Canada] ,The Brob Times [ Ireland] , Jalons [France] and various other journals and anthologies in India. Some of her poems have been translated into French. She has read her poems in Western Europe, the U.S.A. and African universities. She had a fan club of her poetry in the U.S.
Sergio A. Ortiz is a two-time Pushcart nominee, a four-time Best of the Web nominee, and 2016 Best of the Net nominee. 2nd place in the 2016 Ramón Ataz Annual Poetry Competition sponsored by Alaire publishing house. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in FRIGG, Tipton Poetry Journal, Drunk Monkeys, and Bitterzeot Magazine. He is currently working on his first full-length collection of poems, Elephant Graveyard.
Lynn White lives in north Wales. Her work is influenced by issues of social justice and events, places and people she has known or imagined. She is especially interested in exploring the boundaries of dream, fantasy and reality. Her poem ‘A Rose For Gaza’ was shortlisted for the Theatre Cloud ‘War Poetry for Today’ competition 2014. This and many other poems, have been widely published, in recent anthologies such as – ‘Alice In Wonderland’ by Silver Birch Press, ‘The Border Crossed Us’ and ‘Rise’ from Vagabond Press and ‘Selfhood’ from Trancendence Zero – and journals such as Apogee, Firewords Quarterly, Indie Soleil, Midnight Circus and Snapdragon as well as many other online and print publications.
Find Lynn at: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Lynn-White-Poetry/1603675983213077?fref=ts and lynnwhitepoetry.blogspot.com
Suryasri Saha is doing her B Tech. She is a poet from India who loves writing and believes poetry is her forte.
Link to the book she has written – https://www.amazon.in/Unexpected-Love-Story-someone-expecting-ebook/dp/B01N1NS4TD?_encoding=UTF8&keywords=an%20unexpected%20love%20story&portal-device-attributes=desktop&qid=1496832105&ref_=sr_1_21&s=digital-text&sr=1-21
Mrinalini Raj prefers the tag of a ‘Reader’ over that of a ‘Author/Poet’. An English Literature Undergraduate at St.Xavier’s College, She is on her way to discover Womanhood. She has strong opinions hence few friends.
Blog- mrinu.wordpress.com
PPP Ezine Vol 1, Issue 1: A Lonely Tree by Asha Visvas
Autumn leaves
A calligraphy in ochre
On a blanket of sighs :
A sea of sibilance .
The wind whipped tree
Holding a single leaf
The next gust signs it off,
Like the trace of a dream.
The shadow of the tree
Rests in the backyard-
Loneliness- bleak and nameless,
Fear howls in the silent house.
PPP Ezine Vol 1, Issue 1: The Breathing Days by Lynn White
In the days when I still breathed,
the days before
living took my breath away,
the days before
I knew my soul was there.
I thought about this time,
this time of no light,
the forever night time
with no breath, no air
to breathe.
Just dust and darkness.
the days before
living took my breath away,
the days before
I knew my soul was there.
I thought about this time,
this time of no light,
the forever night time
with no breath, no air
to breathe.
Just dust and darkness.
And I pondered.
Would there be slow decay
or fast.
Stillness or movement.
Now I know.
I know everything about
the dust and darkness.
But I can’t tell you.
Not now
in these days
of no breath,
no air
to speak.
Only my soul can speak.
Can you hear me?
or fast.
Stillness or movement.
Now I know.
I know everything about
the dust and darkness.
But I can’t tell you.
Not now
in these days
of no breath,
no air
to speak.
Only my soul can speak.
Can you hear me?
First published in Fragments of Chiaroscuro, Summer 2016
PPP Ezine Vol1, Issue 1: The Yellow Streetlight by Mrinalini Raj
My first memory
Of that yellow light
On the street, is of years ago;
When I walked half-miles
through that dark
Clutching my mother on the
Left and Papa on my right.
Nor were there hundred-homes
Then, neither the Cackling kids
I now hear on the lane outside.
Today, when I click,
And stop mid-way on feeling
Again the yellow around,
Often I am asked, why this
‘Love’ ( if you agree).
No, I don’t know, why
Your ‘LED’ hurts me, yes, I hear
your issues with
The hundred-Watts. I know
When you say it is hot today,
I see my aunt lying sick
Next-room, ‘It is the heat’, they
say. Your concerns for the
green, I know.
While we walked through
The dark, there was
This yellow-street light,
Only one, which
We met always. In that
Quiet there, were three more
With us. Laughs and Smiles
Took shapes.
Years piled, and I saw more
Years piled, and I saw more
Of her, loving a little more
Of that shadowy-bright.
Today, She leaves the trails for her
Young whites, vacating all slow.
Maybe these Nights are
her last.
PPP Ezine Vol1, Issue 1: Loosening Ties by Suryasri Saha.
Relations and ties breach often
at times untold and hard,
parting ways with us,
leaving us all distressed…
Emotions overflow yet the heart
feels desolate…
We wish to reconcile,
entangle the ties in bonds stronger
but the other side often seems too hostile,
they just distance us farther..
Forsaken we feel as if in dire need of the
ones now gone deserting us..
Soul gets hollowed by the void created in life
with their departure sometimes ensuing
confusion as to why they left and
and if they won’t return..
Their thoughts dawns realization reminding
that rendezvous may not happen anytime soon
or maybe never trickling tears but hope remains..
at times untold and hard,
parting ways with us,
leaving us all distressed…
Emotions overflow yet the heart
feels desolate…
We wish to reconcile,
entangle the ties in bonds stronger
but the other side often seems too hostile,
they just distance us farther..
Forsaken we feel as if in dire need of the
ones now gone deserting us..
Soul gets hollowed by the void created in life
with their departure sometimes ensuing
confusion as to why they left and
and if they won’t return..
Their thoughts dawns realization reminding
that rendezvous may not happen anytime soon
or maybe never trickling tears but hope remains..
Hope of coming across them,
maybe at some instance of time,
after all storms are calmed,
when all pangs are soothed..
And even if it doesn’t happen,
broken ties don’t redeem as hoped,
live on with their memories you once lived.
Stop being mournful for ties which loosened
in spite of utmost care,
Its not your fault if you tried yet
they are not here..
Turns those sobs of despair into sobs
of happiness felt on reflecting
the sweet memories so never ending.
Sadden yourself no more if you tried
and walked down the mile,
maybe it wasn’t so worthwhile..
Give way not to doubting the love and bond
once shared in the past which now is so tattered
but to the memories of the moments shared
which can never be shattered.
The ones left may not return but
their memories will never waver,
they will stay forever..
maybe at some instance of time,
after all storms are calmed,
when all pangs are soothed..
And even if it doesn’t happen,
broken ties don’t redeem as hoped,
live on with their memories you once lived.
Stop being mournful for ties which loosened
in spite of utmost care,
Its not your fault if you tried yet
they are not here..
Turns those sobs of despair into sobs
of happiness felt on reflecting
the sweet memories so never ending.
Sadden yourself no more if you tried
and walked down the mile,
maybe it wasn’t so worthwhile..
Give way not to doubting the love and bond
once shared in the past which now is so tattered
but to the memories of the moments shared
which can never be shattered.
The ones left may not return but
their memories will never waver,
they will stay forever..
PPP Ezine Vol1, Issue 1: Night Bird by Sergio A. Ortiz
I ask for nothing
of this land
that has given me everything
I loved and hated its men
found my Adam
he fled with a bodybuilder
as soon as I gained weight
I sought God
and in his place found knowledge
I discovered a home in my body
and since then
moved from place to place
without desires
this is my way
my destiny does not depend on luck
I am the night bird
foretelling death in its song
PPP Ezine Vol1, Issue 1: Land of my Dream by Yajnaseni Mukherjee
I leaned on the balustrade
Wind whipped through my untamed hair
The chill engulfed me
I wove the tendrils of hair into the fabric of my dreams
The azure horizon kissed the green blue sea
My mind transcended the visible realms
And emerged in the sun kissed land of my dreams
Pristine, undulating landscapes
Nomadic wanderlust
Satiated stomachs
Contented smiles
Cozy hearths
Secure havens of peace
Proud city lines
Industrialization saluting technology
The lavish bounty of nature
Harnessed to generate progress
No outraged modesty
No outcry of inequality
No gaping chasms of wealth
No pilferage
No terror unleashed
No forced infliction of brutality
No untold tales of torment
Lost in the maze of reality….
PPP Ezine Vol1, Issue 1: A Rainy Night (Haiku sequence) by James G. Piatt
Bells in the church peal
A sudden cheerful refrain
Sending prayers upward
Deer in the meadow
Leap in unbound ecstasy
As moisture covers earth
PPP Ezine Vol1, Issue 1: Requiem to Peace by Tejasvi Saxena
To seek you is an eternal wait
As drawing streams from dreary desert
Like dredging humanity from dried seabed
Of dead consciences, reeking of death.
To find you, is as empty;
As promises you make in a hollow space
That lost your presence long back.
From gleam of Nut-brown eyes
To shimmering Dal lake
From scented whiff of kahwas ,
To rows of wooden shikaaras,
From young firans to lanky achkans
Who sought a streak of bright Sun;
To blind eyes and crevices of wombs
Which crack with every sound of gun,
Not once, you winced or shrieked aloud
At wailing mothers, mourning on dead
And, gaunt faces of senile fathers;
Whose lives are dim lit
Plummeting in receding rays of sunset.
You lit up the hopeless hopes
Of half-widows and half-mothers
Who live one moment after other
In quest of their spouses and sons.
You seem to fancy the angst of youths
Who try to grab your tentacle hooks
In unidentified cesspools of blood
Agonized Kashmiriyat knows you though;
You march in a Caravan of diplomats
Whose words are sugary entanglements
That bind your fleeting silhouette
To elude in a blink of a swindler’s eye.
PPP Ezine Vol1, Issue 1: De- branched or Not? by Sandeep Kumar Mishra
They say going away is not
Love lost but the beginning of creation,
Of a big bang or a garden fruit,
When they are ripe or ready,
They are de-branched.
I prefer a simple union,
Not detachment
Because avalanches await for
Those who stray far and wide.
Why going off is a part of the process?
Is this division or decrement:
One part detached, one part united?
It is a wireless connection.
We would love more or forget completely
The distance defines the correlations;
We will meet but misfortune suffices
A refuge for the time;
It is not the matter of gain or loss
A joy kindles the sadness of separation
Monthly Archives: July 2017
PPP Ezine, Vol 1 Issue 2, Interview: Sofia Kioroglou
PPP Ezine: Who are your favorite poets, if possible, also tell us what makes them your favorite?
SK: John Bennett is my absolute fave. He is a wordsmith whose pen is the hammer and the page is his anvil. He forges feelings that resonate like that slap to the face in an empty cool bathroom. Brass and sassy teetering on the edge of the precipice of human existence and sagacious. His snippets of truth a puncture in the skin of the body of cold facts, indeed.
PPP Ezine: This one is a direct descendent of Matthew Arnold’s Touchstone Method: ‘They say that there are lines in a poem that make its heart. You may call them the poetry of poetry. Do you remember some such lines of yours or from some of your favorite poets that will help us understand your vision of poetry? If yes, please do give us some of those lines.
SK: Totally agreed! Some lines may dart through the heart of the reader. If I picked a few of them, the following would help you understand my vision of poetry. They are the finishing lines of my poem “The Ten Lepers”
“Human ingratitude more
sinister than Satan’s rage”
PPP Ezine: There has been a debate raging among the lovers of free verse and formal verse. Where do you stand in this debate? Why?
SK: Right in the middle. I go with the moment and I think that a poem is beautiful in whatever form as long as the salient message comes through.
PPP Ezine: You have been writing for a long time. If you could tell us something about what inspired you to write poems in the first place, and then, what kept you going, it’d be inspiring for the new poets.
SK: My love for God has been my animating force. My travels to the Holy Land and Egypt have made me pursue a spiritual journey through words!Every poem is a beacon that guides my spiritual path. A landmark, so to speak, of self-discovery.
PPP Ezine: Give our new poets a few tips (3 or more) for composing well.
SK: Of course, good poetry presupposes technique but if it does not come from the heart it is just hollow. Poetry must serve as a vehicle for the edification of the soul and give an important message
PPP Ezine: Rejection is a life-long friend or enemy of a poet. Please tell us how you responded/respond to your rejections in the past, and now?
SK: I use them as lessons to practice humility. Rejections are great motivators and chasteners.
PPP Ezine: A poet has a cultivated mind. Give us some pointers to cultivate the poetic faculties/genius.
SK: Read a lot and especially other poets’ work. A good reader is a good writer. so, read read read…
PPP Ezine: You have been published and read widely. Please give some tips on submission that increases the chances for selection.
SK: First of all, read the submission guidelines and of course browse through the content of the magazine to get an idea of what editors want to publish. I suppose this sums it all up.
PPP Ezine, Vol 1 Issue 2, Interview: Darrell Herbert
PPP Ezine: Who are your favorite poets, if possible, also tell us what makes them your favorite?
DH: My favorite poet is Sylvia Plath. I love how confident she was in terms of her subject matter, especially isolation and/or outlook on relationships.
PPP Ezine: This one is a direct descendent of Matthew Arnold’s Touchstone Method: ‘They say that there are lines in a poem that make its heart. You may call them the poetry of poetry. Do you remember some such lines of yours or from some of your favorite poets that will help us understand your vision of poetry? If yes, please do give us some of those lines.
DH: My poem called “Perfect Form” can really connect with someone’s heart. The line I have chosen states “You know I can’t reach perfection if I’m not in your perfect form.”
PPP Ezine: There has been a debate raging among the lovers of free verse and formal verse. Where do you stand in this debate? Why?
DH: I would rather free verse. I believe it is more complex to create.
PPP Ezine: You have been writing for a long time. If you could tell us something about what inspired you to write poems in the first place, and then, what kept you going, it’d be inspiring for the new poets.
DH: Isolation is what inspired me to write poems in the first place. What keeps me going is also isolation.
PPP Ezine: Give our new poets a few tips (3 or more) for composing well.
DH: Say what you feel, say what you mean, do what you say.
PPP Ezine: Rejection is a life-long friend or enemy of a poet. Please tell us how you responded/respond to your rejections in the past, and now?
DH: I don’t really care about rejection, seeing as it is an inevitable experience of life.
PPP Ezine: A poet has a cultivated mind. Give us some pointers to cultivate the poetic faculties/genius.
DH: Read different kinds of books, articles, and so on. Watch movies you have yet to witness. Listen to other people’s conversation closely.
PPP Ezine: You have been published and read widely. Please give some tips on submission that increases the chances for selection.
DH: Submit your work to magazines, contests, journals, newspapers, and so forth.
PPP Ezine, Vol 1 Issue 2, Interview: Ann Christine Tabaka
PPP Ezine: Who are your favorite poets, if possible, also tell us what makes them your favorite?
ACT: I have never thought about it. I never read much poetry by famous poets. I do admire the work of several of my contemporary poets that are my Facebook friends.
PPP Ezine: This one is a direct descendent of Matthew Arnold’s Touchstone Method: ‘They say that there are lines in a poem that make its heart. You may call them the poetry of poetry. Do you remember some such lines of yours or from some of your favorite poets that will help us understand your vision of poetry? If yes, please do give us some of those lines.
ACT: No, I do not.
PPP Ezine: There has been a debate raging among the lovers of free verse and formal verse. Where do you stand in this debate? Why?
ACT: I work in both metered rhyme, and free verse. It depends on my subject matter and what mood I am in, also to what journal I am submitting my work. My true love is light and amusing rhymes.
PPP Ezine: You have been writing for a long time. If you could tell us something about what inspired you to write poems in the first place, and then, what kept you going, it’d be inspiring for the new poets.
ACT: I started writing in 1965. I was inspired by the Viet Nam war since my brothers were in the military then. Afterwards, it was the typical teenage angst and young loves that inspired me.
PPP Ezine: Give our new poets a few tips (3 or more) for composing well.
ACT: Always carry a note book and pen or pencil with you. Anyplace and anything can be a poem. Write, write, write … you can always refine alter. Just write what you see and what you feel at the momen.
PPP Ezine: Rejection is a life-long friend or enemy of a poet. Please tell us how you responded/respond to your rejections in the past, and now?
ACT: I always just say “thank you for taking the time to consider my work.” And then move on. It is never easy to be told you are not good enough – I do not like failure, but it is a part of life.
PPP Ezine: A poet has a cultivated mind. Give us some pointers to cultivate the poetic faculties/genius.
ACT: I do not have any pointers. I was a visual artist in my youth, and I just write or draw what I feel, nothing more, and nothing less.
PPP Ezine: You have been published and read widely. Please give some tips on submission that increases the chances for selection.
ACT: Just make sure to know what the publisher wants. I write all types of poems, and I do submit the wrong ones to the wrong journals at times, and that leads to more rejections. Know your audience
PPP Ezine, Vol 1 Issue 2, Interview: Joanne Olivieri
PPP Ezine: Who are your favorite poets, if possible, also tell us what makes them your favorite?
JO: My favorite poets are the traditionalists. Longfellow, Poe, Keats. Byron and Marlowe. Their grasp of the traditional and classics styles are pure perfection. In addition Maya Angelou for her real and proud poetry. Sylvia Plath is also a favorite. There is no other poet that has been able to master the art of imagery as she has. I am always in awe and striving for her talent in this area.
PPP Ezine: This one is a direct descendent of Matthew Arnold’s Touchstone Method: ‘They say that there are lines in a poem that make its heart. You may call them the poetry of poetry. Do you remember some such lines of yours or from some of your favorite poets that will help us understand your vision of poetry? If yes, please do give us some of those lines.
JO: I think in most poems, “the heart” is in the last lines of the poem. That is not always true but I have have found it to be the norm. An example is my poem that you have published. I am describing the Tai Chi with the last lines encompassing the message.
PPP Ezine: There has been a debate raging among the lovers of free verse and formal verse. Where do you stand in this debate? Why?
JO: In school we were taught formal/traditional verse. For me, I love traditional verse and writing traditional is much easier for me. There are literally hundreds and hundreds of formal styles out there and I think in order to write poetry at all, formal verse needs to be read and studied by poets. As far as the debate, poetry comes from the heart and as long as your words convey a message, the style is secondary. There are many publications that won’t even read anything other than free verse and personally I think that is wrong. By doing that they are inconsiderate of the poets’ unique voice.
PPP Ezine: You have been writing for a long time. If you could tell us something about what inspired you to write poems in the first place, and then, what kept you going, it’d be inspiring for the new poets.
JO: When I was ten years old, my Mom bought me a poetry book titled Speak Nature by James Walker Sr. I fell in love with poetry by reading that book. It was written in formal verse and each poem displayed a message about nature. I carried it everywhere I went. In fact I still have it and read through it the other day. Poetry was a means for me to express my feelings. I was very shy as a child and poetry allowed me to speak through my words. It is just a part of me now. It’s a corner of my soul
PPP Ezine: Give our new poets a few tips (3 or more) for composing well.
JO: First, always write from your heart. Second, Study all different types of poetry and that will help you find your own voice. Third, Imagery is a key component to poetry. Think of poetry as painting a picture on canvas with words.
PPP Ezine: Rejection is a life-long friend or enemy of a poet. Please tell us how you responded/respond to your rejections in the past, and now?
JO: When I first began writing poetry I was about 12 years old. I didn’t begin submitting until I was around 16. I received many rejections and that always made me feel terrible. Shortly after I entered a poem into a contest where the accepted poems were published in a book and the poets had to buy a copy. It was a vanity press. My poem was published and I received the copy., I was so excited and my Mom who always encouraged my poetry was even more excited. When my Father got home from work that day I showed him the book and he barely took a glance at my poem, threw it on the table and said “why do you waste your time with this? you are never going to make any money doing this.” I was so upset that I stopped writing for about a year. My Mom kept encouraging me to write so I began submitting again. That rejection from my Father actually helped me in that from then on whenever I received a rejection from a publisher, I took it as a challenge and wrote more and submitted more.
Now, I really don’t submit anymore as I have hundreds of publication credits to my name but it is always nice to be published again.
[EDITOR’S NOTE: There is an interesting story of how JO submitted her poems to PPP Ezine. Our poet Sofia Kiroglou made a kind of prophesy by counting JO among the poets published in the ezine. I appealed to JO in the name of poetry, Sofia, and prophesy to send her poems to the ezine, and graceful as she ever is, she sent her poems.]
PPP Ezine: A poet has a cultivated mind. Give us some pointers to cultivate the poetic faculties/genius.
JO: A poet is forever curious and that is what makes a great poet. Experiencing the world and different cultures, experiencing nature and what is has to offer and being passionate about someone or some cause is what cultivates the poetic faculties genius. Another point, let’s say you are walking along a road and there is a rock on the road. Look at the rock and become the rock and then write a poem as the rock. I was taught this in a creative writing class in high school. It’s a great way to cultivate imagery.
PPP Ezine: You have been published and read widely. Please give some tips on submission that increases the chances for selection.
JO: As you well know, I am a stickler for submission guidelines. I would say follow the guidelines to the letter. Beyond that write from your heart.
PPP Ezine, Vol 1 Issue 2, Interview: Sunil Sharma
PPP Ezine: Who are your favorite poets, if possible, also tell us what makes them your favorite?
SS: The Romantics. Younger ones like Shelley and Keats for questioning the hollowness of the industrial development and recovering of a Hellenic spirit. Baudelaire,Neruda and Ginsberg for being subversives; Eliot as a disrupter; Gabriela Mistral, Nicanor Parra and Jose Carlos Mariategui for humanism; Antonio Machado, Federico Garcia Lorca, Alejandra Pizarnik and Octavio Paz for their politics and guts; Shakespeare—for showing life in its richness and contradictions. Faiz for asking us to speak up; Ghalib for voicing pain; Dushyant Kumar for exposing hypocrisy; Gulzar for profundity in everyday. Endless list.
Common thread: Writing for the people, of the people; not of self or linguistic pyrotechnics that might dazzle but end up soon in a heap of dying embers and act as noxious carbon monoxide. In brief—writing as a change agent by radicalising consciousness of the recipient. These exalted poets do that only in different ways. Current writing, broadly speaking, despite its fantastic growth, is woefully lacking in this spirit and transformational ability. It does not possess this kind of capacity to mould and change. Social commitment is sorely missing from the plethora of posts in the cyberspace. Only self promotion, arranged interviews and reviews and race for awards in the Litfests run by the MNCs.
PPP Ezine: This one is a direct descendent of Matthew Arnold’s Touchstone Method: ‘They say that there are lines in a poem that make its heart. You may call them the poetry of poetry. Do you remember some such lines of yours or from some of your favorite poets that will help us understand your vision of poetry? If yes, please do give us some of those lines.
SS: ‘The time is out of joint—O cursèd spite, That ever I was born to set it right’.
‘In the room the women come and go/ Talking of Michelangelo’.
‘If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?’
The lines that contain whole worlds within. That show the way forward. That critique. That are moral. Almost a code of conduct for living in turbulent times.
PPP Ezine: There has been a debate raging among the lovers of free verse and formal verse. Where do you stand in this debate? Why?
SS: With free verse. Let there be a free flow of words, unchecked by the ossified regulations carried forward from a time-frame at variance with ours. Less formalism and its restrictions go with the temper of the new millennium. Poetry should be more liberal and sometimes, a disrupter. Iconoclasm is essential for the domain, for the status-quo. Most of the current poetry is expressed in free verse. it releases the poet from the tyranny of canon and restricted rules imported gleefully from an earlier era by the academic infra and interests. It is more liberating and approximates daily speech—hence, more democratic, real and authentic. And proving very popular. The distance, thus, between poet and everyday life and reader is dissolved.
PPP Ezine: You have been writing for a long time. If you could tell us something about what inspired you to write poems in the first place, and then, what kept you going, it’d be inspiring for the new poets.
SS: Humanism. We have to guard this cherished principle against the assault of cynical market forces out to de-legistimise and expel it. The Unsaid has to be articulated in the verse. The invisible to be made visible. The marginalized need to be rehabilitated bang on in the center. The poor and the underdogs are my chosen province and these folks keep on motivating to write about them in my poetry and prose works. i am not the type that experiments with syntax and language structures. No, i am not Joyce nor meant to be. Perhaps others can pretend to be. Frost is my ideal. Hemingway also. Writing has to be political. Pro people. Pro change.
PPP Ezine: Give our new poets a few tips (3 or more) for composing well.
SS: Be authentic. Listen carefully. Write properly. Community, not self, crucial for a career as a serious writer. Writing per se is a reward in itself. Rest does not matter. It is a sadhna.
PPP Ezine: Rejection is a life-long friend or enemy of a poet. Please tell us how you responded/respond to your rejections in the past, and now?
SS: Rejections are good tonic for an inflated ego; a sense of unequal self-worth. The slips—these days curt lines on computer screen— teach you the wider world does not yet recognize you as a celeb or a solid writer of repute but as a practitioner of a difficult art and you have to diligently follow the path trodden by more famous of your tribe—before they got enshrined in the pantheon.
It is always humbling for one that is ready to work hard on the craft. Tolstoy wrote the massive War and Peace seven times! I am sure none so far has so far surpassed that venerable saint from Yasnaya Polyana. Re-writes turn out to be much better.
Rejections! Best teachers.
PPP Ezine: A poet has a cultivated mind. Give us some pointers to cultivate the poetic faculties/genius.
SS: I doubt it, a statement that subconsciously echoes the 1833 John Stuart Mill and others of a later age, elevating the creative mind, romantically privileging the writer as the principal source, some kind of super hero. If in doubt, better ask Baudelaire. Or Chacha [Uncle] Ghalib. Or Sarat Babu, or for that matter, Gauguin. Picasso. Van Gogh. Great creative minds are not saints. They are ordinary people with extraordinary talents. Maugham has written one entire book on it, dissecting great minds and their immortal works. It demystifies the aura of greatness and shows frailties that make the literary immortals, so much endearing and humans—and vulnerable like the toiling masses.
PPP Ezine: You have been published and read widely. Please give some tips on submission that increases the chances for selection.
SS: Read the individual submission-guides carefully. Back issues tell you a lot about the preferred in-house style. Each journal has got a distinct personality. Be respectful to the edit team sweating it out just for the sake of it, expecting nothing. The poor guys certainly deserve a thank-you note, if not an overused smiley! Pompousness can be off-putting for the edit. And be ready to be rejected some places—and then accepted elsewhere. Much like your typical dating games these days. You don’t know what might click and what might backfire. No sure formula. You have to be in the 24X&7 process to crack it individually. However, good and clean copy helps grab some busy eyeballs. Bad grammar can be a turn off. So will be a rude or impersonal tone of the submit.
Old-world courtesy always works.
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