A Wonderful Blend of Poetry and Music

   A Wonderful Blend of Poetry and Music(A review of a poets' meet )
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Respected dignitaries on the dais and dear friends,

                       Sugathan Master set the tone of the meet by inaugurating the session with a splendid rendering of the poem written in Malayalam 'Veedu' by O N V Kurup.His musical rendering took me to the olden days when I sat alone in the late night carnatic concerts in Kozhikode during my B Ed days.Sitting in the crowd but feeling alone and excited in the flow of music I would forget myself and leave the hall refreshed and ecstasic.Today when Santhosh Cherupuzha, Subash Edavarambu,Vishnu Manoj and Sreelakshmi Sashi presented the poems -Post Mortem, Iruttile Kazcha(a view in darkness ),Therali (the driver )and Varu Nee Koottukara(Welcome my friend),I have the same feeling.I am sure all of us  feel raised to higher plane of life.and this meet of poets marks this special camp as different from all the the other  camps being conducted in various parts of this district and perhaps in the state too.This is a different experience. After this session , being  part of the audience ,I am convinced that poetry can lift human minds to a plane where we all will feel exalted and poised for action.

                 That is what poetry does.It changes us.It becomes a powerful defence against the forces of darkness like marginalisation, colonisation and sexual abuse.The poems presented here reveals the pathos and agony of common man when we hear about the rebels being shot down by the police or about the hunters who haunt the darlings even from their sleep bed in slums.Poetry takes us into the realm  of nostalgia and makes us hopeful that one day we might  meet the lost friends ,at least in a riot torn land.The poet cannot hide the rebellious thought  when he realises that even a devilish criminal like Govinda Chami(the rapist who murdered an innocent girl Soumya) is let off the hook by the so called perfect system of blind justice in the society.


It is a fact that Poetry is something to be meditated over and it should blossom up naturally in one's heart.And that is how each line is created by a poet.A poet would have meditated over a word many times and it is a challenge to decipher them in a poets' meet.That why I doubt whether I was able to decipher every line we heard in this session.This is a promise that I ,all of us will delve deep into these poems again and again.They are so powerful. I have wondered why poetry surges into our thoughts without being called upon.Last month  when I was standing in front of the Mysore palace observing its splendour and beauty-not a new experience  as I have visited this place many times - then come the lines of the poet Sachidanandan into my mind.All the forts and dungeons will become archives one day.Every fort will fall down.That lifts my mind into a new perspective of life.Then James Shirley speaks on .Only the actions of the just will smell sweet and blossom in the dust.Every thing else dies.This is what poetry is about.It takes us into eternity.It is a defense of the hurt,the lost and the abandoned.

                 Poetry is defined as the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings .It is also described as emotions recollected in tranquility. In my view it is more than that.It should be .It can and it should lift our mind to a plane where we will feel exalted and poised for action.A time will come when we can be sure that all our gazes are without revenge;all our words are without trash.(as quoted in the poem 'Veedu'). There will be a time when we consider the words of the other as sweeter than music.This session has provided us at least a dream to pursue .A dream of a change in attitudes and perceptions.That is what this meeting of the volunteers of the National Service Scheme is concerned about and that is why I am so grateful to the enlightened minds who were present here.It was a wonderful blend of poetry and music .
Thank you all.

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A Review of a Poet Meet held as part of the seven day camp for the first year national service scheme members in GHSS KAMBALLUR(28/12/2016)

( SCRIPT OF A REVIEW SPEECH- translated from the Malayalam version )

JNAN PITH WINNER SHANKHAGHOSH

Shankha Ghosh is a Bengali Indian poet and critic. He was born in Chandpur of what is now Bangladesh. Shankha Ghosh is regarded a leading authority on Rabindranath in addition to being one of the most prolific writers in Bengali. (Wikipedia) .
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The Storm of Desire( CREDITS TO http://www.parabaas.com )
A POEM BY Sankha Ghosh
In this hovering soundless solitude,
In the abundant lonesome winds of this dark evening,
You turn up
your white pale face
cold as a cloud, lightless like the moon
towards the enormous sky.

From a far-away land I tremble
with the unbearable agony of desire---
Bunched around your white stone of a face
thin wisps of hair tremble
in the dark wind
        like so many fingers extended
                in pain, in prayer.

The corner of the sky grows heavy
with clustering clouds,---
Flashes of longing tear through
with repeated ferocity,
Tidal waves of love seeking to burst forth
in tremendous ecstasy, agitate
the unbounded distances within the darkness,
the sombre complexion of a reflective unmoving land.
You turn up your face
cold as a cloud, lightless like the moon,
your breasts are like undulations of a land
that has wept itself to weary stillness
you stretch out your anxious wasted arms--- long-expectant,
prayer-tired, towards that furious enormous sky-----

Around them cluster darkness,
wisps of hair,
a thousand musical notes,
in the boundless lonesome winds.

Slowly creation reaches readiness:
      As if in one terrible blessedly-sweet moment,
the clouds of its desire break forth
in bolts of unbearable thunder piercing the middle
of your outspread breast, eager, upturned,
towards the total bliss of union---
Then,banishing all rubbish
from this wet dishevelled tumbledown world
CREDITS TO http://www.parabaas.com transpires
      a beautiful cool caressing
                  morning.

Translated by Nandini Gupta [nandinI gupta*] - Nandini Gupta is a post-doctoral research fellow at the Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands
CREDITS TO http://www.parabaas.com 

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A critical appreciation of THIS IS GOING TO HURT A LITTLE BIT

"This is Going to Hurt a Little Bit"  by Ogden Nash is ironical and humorous.Sitting in a dentist's chair is indeed an unpleasant experience.It is hard ,annoying,shameful embarassing and frightening to keep your mouth wide open with your jaws digging deep into your chest and to let the dentist work up on your mouth with awful tools like the drill and the crowbar.It is terrible to imagine what would  happen if the dentist moving like a bear gets the teeth mixed up as he is using a mirror.After the job is over, we think it is all over for once.Then the dentist advises us to come back after three monce !The vicious circle of visits will go on .There is no escape for a human being from this dental torture.This graphic presentation in free verse contributes to the energy and lively spirit of  the poem.

The poem with rhyme amd rhythm has got a  simple and lucid language.Humour is cooked up with the right blend of irony,exaggeration,simile and puns.The very title of the poem is ironical.It reveals the importance of the way we percieve life. To a dentist ,it is a simple task.To the patient is can be a terrible experience.The peom analyses the embarassment and fear we feel with the help of exaggerations like  "The mouth is like a section of road which is being worked on".The puns like 'hope hopen' and 'three monce' make the poem alive with comedy .These devices add to the ironical and humorous tone of the poem.The poem  is an attempt to change an unpleasant experience into an acceptable predicament.Perceptions can change life.

Ogden Nash is trying to tell us that humour is the salt of life.A pinch of it can change the way we see things.Life can be beautiful if we take a lighter approach to wards it.Without laughter , life would be a sad place.As SofIa Burger stresses in her poem 'Laughter'

It is important the we move forward in life with a different perspective .

Never laughing at someone,
Only sharing together the humor of moments.

A SONG BY BOB DYLAN

How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man?
Yes, 'n' how many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand?
Yes, 'n' how many times must the cannon balls fly
Before they're forever banned?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,
The answer is blowin' in the wind.

How many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
Yes, 'n' how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, 'n' how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,
The answer is blowin' in the wind.

How many…

Songwriters: Bob Dylan / Diana Pequeno

Blowin' in the Wind lyrics © Bob Dylan Music Co.

 

QN TO STUDENTS :WHO IS BOB DYLAN ?