‘When poets are jumping frogs’

Anisur RahmanAnisur Rahman
Published : 1 Feb 2017, 09:38 AM
Updated : 1 Feb 2017, 09:38 AM

Why does everyone have an opinion about poetry? Because everyone has at one time wished to be a poet. In fact, everyone is a poet at one stage. Even a professional killer tries to find metaphors for his beloved while making love or dating. The moment makes him a poet, true poet. Politicians necessarily try to make their speeches poetic. Journalists do the same when making journalistic pieces. In his mind a thief draws the poetic outline for stealing.

Falling in love makes one a poet. One tries to send a poetic line to a lover. The president killing women and children in the world, I guess, does not forget to give a poetic kiss to his wife or have some metaphors while making love with her. No problem, welcome everyone. If Adolf Hitler, George W.Bush, or Osama bin Laden had poetic minds and attempted to write poems, there is nothing wrong with that. The question is whether those were to be poems or not. A notorious person who has poetic talent can separate the two entities: notoriety and poetry. As with Ezra Pound, who was a supporter of Mussolini.

1.
Why do so many people have such a hard time understanding poetry? Because poetry is not something to understand but to feel. Poetry is not like the stock market. Poetry is not cricket or football.

It has to be felt. Something is wrong when you try to understand poetry. When some people say they do not understand poetry, they are lying. They in fact do not read poetry. They are the true enemies of poetry, but the same people usually do not say they do not understand the Quran or the Bible or the Tripitok or the Grantha Sahib.

2.
A poet is biased towards truth, beauty and life. So am I. If I do not find that something is beautiful, I could do something else. That is what capitalists, bankers, bureaucrats, soldiers, propaganda machine politicians, extremists who do some deals against humanity do. I find beauty in the nobility of Nelson Mandela, difficulties of implementation of goodwill in Obama, a lion heart in Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Dag Hammarskjöld, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Olof Palme. I find something beautiful in the caricature of a good many prime ministers today, whose poses remind us that they show themselves up as a corporate bosses but lack statesmanship. I am a selfish man. My interest is to see smiles on the faces of children, millions of poor in different countries.

I find beauty in the free flight of birds, safe movement of animals, free-flowing rivers and the rush of fresh air. I am biased towards love. I find spirituality of beauty in kissing. This is me, and I find something beautiful despite all my anger against what I do not expect.

3.
Poetry reminds bureaucrats to serve the promotion of beauty in public life. Dictators are afraid of poetry, thinking it may be the cause of revolution.

The power and spiritual values in poetry can never be counted. But it matters a lot in life. When Allen Ginsberg wrote a poem called "Jessore Road", addressing the mass killing in Bangladesh by the Pakistani occupation army, patronised by America in 1971, poetry mattered much.

Bangladesh's national poet Kazi Nazrul Islam was imprisoned for many years, because of his poem "Bidrohi" (The Rebel) against the British colonial occupation. Poetry matters a lot. Bangladesh and India have chosen poems from Rabindranath Tagore as their national anthems, so poetry matters. I do not agree with the Zimbabwean poet Chenjerai Hove, who says poetry is a weak existence. I think he is confused. Poetry is a shelter to life. Poetry is a disturbing element to the upholder of the unjust. Yes, poetry matters, but not always the poet.

4.
Writing is a habit. Writing is a practice. While practicing, mistakes are to be expected. No learning is free from mistakes. You have so many chances tobe a good poet. If you do not see the mistakes in your writings, then you are to be pitied. Poets are not prophets. They do not carry divine messages from the gods, but tell of their minds and learn from life. Life requires mistakes. Otherwise life is not real. Mistakes help a poet progress and therefore gain confidence. Perfect writings are idle and useless.

If a footballer or cricketer can make mistakes, why not a poet?

5.
To be a poet is to be sovereign. Poetry is the highest form of sovereign thinking. A poet does not care about any certificate, any academy, any university, any media, any authority, any dictator. First he cares about a reader in him, then he cares about a critic in him. This critic is active until he thinks a poem is printable. A poet talks to many, even to master poets, about poetry. But for his own poetry he is the ultimate and only independent authority to decide. He may have orientation in many ways, but he is ultimately the decision-maker about his own poetry. He always remembers that nobody can make him a poet but himself. It is not a gift. It is something as an outcome of one's devotion. When you decide to be a poet, you decide to be independent.

"Poets are jumping frogs," as the Bengali poet Rafiq Azad noted in a comment to the Indian poet Shankha Ghosh.

6.
When you are afraid of losing ideas, it may be that you lack ideas. Writing is a matter of sharing ideas. Do you think if Shakespeare's ideas of sonnets were given to someone else, that this person could write such sonnets? It never happens. One should take writing seriously. It is not such a romantic activity that you would take pen and paper and sit at the table to write sonnets. You need to know how to craft that sonnet. You need to know the craft of poetry. Writing is craftsmanship. Craftsmanship is a part of orientation. Without orientation, you cannot presume to be a poet. This is true for every work and every art form. One must know how to do it. Otherwise, despite having many prospects, a poet may get lost.

7.
You do not have to go to a writing school to be a poet. But you must have an orientation. If you can have it by other means, why should you be in school? Many great poets are dropouts from academia. Academia has no such depth. There are still no creative writing schools or writing courses in many countries.

But there are many great writers. Without having a degree in agriculture, one can be a very successful farmer, without studying commerce one can be a successful businessman. But, they have practical knowledge in agriculture and business. That is important. In fact, no art can be taught. Only one thing can be achieved from education in art or writing and that is inspiration. It somehow also guides you on how you can be oriented yourself. Teaching can help you to become a good reader of poetry.

But most teachers of literature, from elementary to university levels, do not know what poetry is. They know some grand theories. Poetry does not follow any theory. They know some important names.
Poetry does not care about such important names either. A poet should be a teacher himself. Art or poetry is a matter of being self-taught. If I need to find a teacher I always find bad poets, though I learnt a lot from good poets. Shakespeare had no teacher, Henrik Ibsen had no teacher, Rabindranath Tagore had no teacher. So what? They were teachers to themselves.

8.
To promote my poetry is important, as important as sending my daughter to school. If I cannot reach my readers, there is no point in writing. The promotion of poetry is a must. It also makes it easier fora poet to survive when writing. Survival is always a must. When you cannot survive, writing or art is simply meaningless. It is like scientific discovery:

If it is not promoted and does not reach people, it has no life-enhancing role. To me, to promote poetry is also to promote life. There are ways to reach readers. They include public readings, publishing in literary journals, and publishing in books. These are not the best ways to reach readers. The best way is bilateral reading. A poet will read and the other will listen. I mean a poet's humble and easy communication with the reader who truly loves his or her poems. Public readings, magazines, and published books can help to have such bilateral listeners over coffee or wine. But be sure not to disturb the existing love. A committed poet needs to be serious to make his presence.

9.
Priority is the taste of a reader. A great poet is a great reader first. A poem will not be irritating toy our ears when you read it aloud. You will get natural musicality in it, and rhythm as well. It does not matter whether you have knowledge of music or rhymes. Your ears are a testing instrument. You will know it very well. You have no right to confuse your readers. You can only do this if you are very confused or not honest with yourself. By inviting confusion in writing and committing dishonest practices in writing, you ultimately kill yourself.

A poet must be committed to life, but to nothing else. A poet knows that he is working with the right things. Otherwise, he can be warned. Entertainment must not be priority. I am not dismissing the importance of entertainment. But it will come through enlightenment. Do not be guided by the actors who are enjoying an authoritarian position with regard to poetry events or publishers. You maybe misguided, confused or irritated. Respect them only if they are truly serious readers of poetry or if they themselves are also committed poets at the same time.

10.
A poet is not an expert. A poet is not a specialist. But this does not mean that a poet will not have an idea about what he is writing. He must have his best idea first. Then he has the moral right to write it. Writing a poem about a patient or a hospital does not require a poet to specialize early on. The same can be said about poems on war, love and so. A poet learns from life. If there is any necessary specialization it lies there. A poet must be an obedient student to this school.