Journal: Ponder 2023, The Book — Part 1
I am torn between the Pondering woman and a butterfly for the cover page. But before we get there, somebody asked me this question. Do people read poetry? Well, I think some of us do. Then, the ultimate question — do people read my poetry reviews? That is a tough question. I think a few do — especially those poets who I review. Some read only their portion of their review, and a few read the full review.
If that is your readership, my friend, who do you make the books? There are two perspectives to it. Firstly, the poets. Secondly, me.
The Poet’s Perspective: There are thousands of poems composed every day. With the need to express and easy access through Internet and the Mobile Phones, anybody can write a poem. But it takes more than writing a few words to become a poet. Think about the difference between a chef and a cook at home. Mom’s food is great but to become a Chef, there is a whole path to walk — you need to experiment, learn, listen, and work at becoming better poets.
I see a few handfuls who are at it daily, and they experiment, learn, listen, and then come up with new types — word plays, emotions, situations, genres. Such poets then become the flower-bearing plants, and their poems are the flowers. When they post on social media, they have a few inherent challenges. They have to be active on social media ( while many great poets are introverts), and they need followership. Social media algorithms sweep the poems like any other posts. Poems are not a preferred read unless the poet is part of a mutual admiration club ( I belong to a few).
There is a need, therefore, to identify great poetry, that seldom gets published, and then review it in a way that brings not only the meaning, but the larger essence — the perspective, the philosophy, the environment, for no poem, like any other great piece of art, stands alone, but integrated with humanity and its ecosystem. A flower needs its butterflies and bees, who survive on its nectar, and these flower-hoppers carry the pollen from the flower contributing to the process of more new buds.
My perspective: My poems cross genres — romantic, natural, social, philosophical, etc. As I write more, I read more. Wearing the poet’s hat, it is easy to understand what a good poem deserves. Attention. Careful tendering of perspective, like a connoisseur. Imagine a gardener’s eyes on its flowers.
I imagine walking among the flower beds, looking for the day’s blooms. The beautiful blooms lie there, some as new buds, some as withering yesterday’s wonders, and others dazzle on their day. Like poems, flowers do exactly what they ought to — express. Flowers bud, bloom, and wither, much like poems; but flowers become poems if butterflies and bees hover around, and poems become flowers of eternity if there are connoisseurs…us, readers.
But, if there are only a few of them, why the book? Well, we are reading Shakespeare today, don’t we? We love Van Gogh, much longer after he is gone, don’t we? Who knows, my friends, that a few of these poems get the attention they deserve? Some poets become famous … but fame does not mean quality — in this world of insta-poetry.
Some of my close friends say that don’t read poetry. Not reading poetry is a sort of fashion, so much as reading or writing poetry. Of course, I am talking about vanity here. Then, we have the serious ones that I talked about. It brings me to the way I select poems — the poems that could, in my view, hold the candle for contemporary poetry.
Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.
- William Wordsworth ( English Romantic poet — 1770–1850)
The themes of the poetry review flow from the poems themselves. I look for a title, then I stumble upon a poem, and then I look for the same theme, and I find more. It is like stringing flowers into a garland, the flowers look great as individuals, but as a garland, they look a different type of beauty. From flowers to garlands. Each knot, each weave is important to me, as I imagine the three involved — the poem, the poet, and the reader ( other than me), and the outcome is the review — the garland. The garland is as artistic as the flower, except that there is no flower without the garland, and the flower is the original beauty.
Now, the book. Why print the copies, when I put them out here on Medium and share them on social media? Books, my friends, existed from the day men started scribbling on cave walls. The printed letter is the best way to transmit literature beyond generations; Chinese and Srilankan chroniclers have passed on accurate histories for more than three centuries, and so, beyond the digital realm, the printed word will survive. Print is old-fashioned, but the papyri medium is the oldest, and therefore, close to eternity. Publishing a volume of Ponder — the poetry review series makes the poems published ones, and the poets — published poets.
I have been doing this for 4 years, thanks to the support of an independent publisher, and the copies make beautiful pieces of artwork. Look at the picture below.
Imagine holding these books and then plunging into them, feeling the smell of the new paper and the flowers that are poems. It is a feeling that I yearn for every year. This year is no exception. Now I am back to the debate… should it be a pondering young woman or a butterfly on the cover of Ponder 2023?
Wait for Part 2 for the answer…
~Ashok Subramanian © 2024
