Journal: Ponder 2023, The Book- Part 3
We will cover the salient features of Ponder 2023, The Book in Part 3. Ponder 2022 was an experiment, Ponder 2023 was about building on it. So the two-part structure remains. The first part is the familiar one — the Ponder Series and the second part has fabulous tributes.
a) Themes:
Ponder 2023 crosses over from Ponder 2022, which ended with seasonal themes — The Autumn Poems and Monsoon Magic. Ponder 2023 covers the Spring and the Winter Collection to complete the four-season journey. I take note that Summer is left out. We will get there sometime. A few themes soak in metaphorical and qualitative profundity like ‘Blindfolds’, ‘Park Bench Poems’, ‘Miracles in Stillness and Flow’, ‘Birth of a Poem’, and ‘Irony’. A couple of themes cover the day and nature like ‘Celestial Interplay of Popsicle Skies’ and ‘Beautiful Nights’ dip into the vagaries and vicissitudes of the day while holding the magic of nature in awe. These themes provide variety to the poetry lover.
b) New Poets
The comfort zone in reviewing is to find poems written by the alumni of the Ponder series. The easier part is to get their consent, because the ice is broken, and they have seen the review and the publication. Make no mistake, it is an absolute delight to find poems in the alumni’s posts and write about them, but the discovery of poems from new poets is another level of delight. The effort to connect, introduce, and get their consent is a real effort — I am a reclusive person and for me to find new poets is therefore the gargantuan effort.
Ponder 2023 covets the presence of ten new poets. It creates the balance between intake and the tributes, like a journey within Ponder itself. The idea of finding new poets is to expand the diversity of genre, writing, styles and substance of the verse. The Ponder Universe gets bigger, like how the Hubble Telescopes discovers new galaxies and stars every year. Some of the poets are fictional authors, and some are prolific, and they just happened to appear in my horizon or appear on my search results. But I reject almost ten poems to find the right one, that is diverse and deep enough to fit a topic.
It is not like the gold rush, but picking cherries from those scattered on the ground. I have found them, but can’t pick them yet. I have to respect that the cherries belong to a gardener, this time, it is a stranger and each cherry is owned by a different stranger. To wait for the consent to publish is a moment of suspense — if the permission does not come, then I have to go back to the garden yard once again to find one. I have seldom dithered or deferred the search, because the success of the review is finding newness in diversity. The fruits of patience always taste sweeter, don’t they?
c) The Tribute Series
The Tribute Series started in Ponder 2022. The challenge for Ponder 2023 was to find deserving candidates that meet the standards of Ponder 2022. But, lo and behold, the miracle happened. The tribute series is a part that I would want to go through again, and feel the magnificence of the Honorees of the tribute series.
The honoree list is as diverse as it gets. There is that one poem that I could pick up before the poet went on social media- detox, despite being the most prolific and profound. There are the others who churn poetry that churns our hearts and souls, and question our lives and existential meanings. I felt liberated when I wrote the reviews as form of tributes, because not only I being the messenger, but also the message itself — these poets cannot be confined to a simple one time review, but had to occupy a higher pedestal for their profundity and prolificness.
d) A Mountain Climbed
They say it takes three dots to make a straight line. But to stay in business beyond that is another challenge. In a year when I almost lost myself, fighting against personal odds and business challenges, it was pure rigor and discipline that made this possible, only to be surpassed by my love for poetry and the poets. In the absence of a confidante, Ponder 2023 kept my ship afloat. It was a mountain climbed with ruthless rigor and unbridled thirst for poetry. It is hard to put more in words, but it might just suffice to say that there are friends out there who in a way, lend their poetic shoulders than the ones that I can physically lean on.
In Part 4, we will reveal the roster — the names, numbers and the statistics of the book that could become Ponder 2023.
~Ashok Subramanian © 2024
