Ponder 2022: Experiments
Finally, after announcing its launch in April, I set to work on my favorite book series — Ponder — An annual collection of poetry reviews that I did during the year 2022.
2022 was difficult for me. My mother had just passed in December 2021. My focus on my work faltered, and we had some tough times too.
“It is not our contemplation of life. Rather, it is the living out of our lives so that we have something to contemplate.”
― Craig D. Lounsbrough
My life was a mess, but I could claim force majeure and float like a figleaf in the whirlpool of destiny. But I stood still, like a rock that is washed by the flowing stream of life, contemplating the good poetry that came my way.
Themes:
The themes of my poetry review were about Nature — the mountains, sun, moon, the seasons — monsoon and autumn, and a bit of urban spice added to the mix. This is unlike me, for I prefer emotional, more inward-looking poetry, than outward-looking. The solace that I drew from nature is reflected in the poetry themes and the selection of poems.
Cover Art:
Like the previous years, Ponder 2022, carries a closeup, contemplative and brooding face of a woman. A brooding young woman is the highest form of social evolution. When women think, introspect, express, and opine, society grows to another level, adding layers of social evolution. It is my clear message against anything patriarchal, and therefore, the book’s cover represents my philosophy.
The Poets:
Jacob, Chloe, Leslie, Amitabh, Chitra and Sherifah are the new additions to the ‘featured poet’ list this year. I also appear in the poet list, as I found a couple of my poems as the best response to portions of the reviews.
The other ‘featured poets’ are luminaries who continued to make it to the list because of their excellent, relevant poetry fitting into the selected themes, but bringing diversity in their approach and points of view.
The Statistics:
29400 words — 11 reviews, out of which 4 are tributes. 30 poems from 18 poets across 5 continents. The number of poems and poets is the highest to date, despite the lower number of reviews. One of the reasons is that I tried quadruple-poem reviews ( 4 poems) as part of a new experiment. You can call this the first experiment.
Tribute:
For the first time in three years, Ponder Series bestows a separate roll of honor called ‘Tribute’. This is a separate section in the book, in which a poet’s poem is explored and reviewed, but also a commentary on the poet’s style and larger work is explored. Call this the second experiment.
In this new series:
a) Desiree Driesenaar under tribute titled ‘Nature is Us’
b) Elizabeth (Beth) Urabe under tribute titled ‘Born, Reborn and Abortion’
c) Donovan Baldwin under tribute titled ‘Flights of Fancy’
d) Priya Patel under tribute titled ‘The Beauty in Sadness’
Let us join in celebrating their work and contributions to contemporary poetry.
Collaboration:
I had the opportunity to reluctantly at first, then rejoicing later collaborate with the prolific Priya Patel. She is a prolific poet and we have evolved our collaborations to such a level that such experiments are evolving into a ‘toe-to-toe’ series. Let us call this the third experiment.
In Ponder 2022, Priya Patel wrote her pieces of tribute and reviews. She is more poetic and profound than me, and a natural reviewer. Of course, I am a fan.
Ponder 2022:
Finally, Ponder 2022 is on. Currently, the cover options are getting readied and the extracts from the draft are being reviewed. It has been a tough year, but the focus, discipline, and fun with experiments have kept me going.
I thank all the poets and patrons for their contribution and support in getting Ponder 2022 across the line.
~Ashok Subramanian © 2023
