Poetry Lives On | Marginalia 22-23

Poetry Lives On...

Have readers of poetry dwindled? Has poetry itself changed over a period of time? Radhika Agarwal answers these questions.

Photograph by Radhika Agarwal

“How lucky we are,

That you can’t sell

A poem, that it has

No Value. Might

As well

Give it away.

That poem you love,

That saved your life,

Wasn’t it given to you?”

–Gregory Orr

“Where are the poems?” I distinctly remember asking my school librarian. I distinctly remember the shrug that was her entire response. I searched every nook and corner of the library. However, except in the language textbooks, the poems that I loved and cherished were nowhere to be found.

“Readers of poetry are dwindling in numbers.” I have heard so many people say this over the years. I grew up with the belief that if the much-loved prose is losing readership how will a form that has never had many readers in the first place survive? Would there be no poetry to love or cherish or as Sylvia Plath said to repeat to ourselves when, “We’re unhappy or sick and couldn't sleep?”

A few months ago when I went to Kitab Khana, it took a fair share of looking and asking around to find the poetry section. “We have made a separate section for poetry and believe that sales would gradually increase,” Sailesh Shenoi says about the sale of poetry books at Kitab Khana. But tucked in a corner, amongst the shelves meant for Hindi literature the poetry section is certainly not easy to find. You might as well believe that poetry is dying if it’s not dead yet.

Arundhathi Subramaniam, poet, editor, and founder of the India domain of Poetry International Web, debunks the myth about the dwindling readership of poetry as she writes in an email interview, “Publishers for poetry in the late 1980s and 1990s were few and far between. The Indian novel in English had found its place in the sun, and Indian poetry in English was seen as a somewhat poor cousin — a derivative form, with a Victorian hangover. Today much has changed. There are many more small publishers, in addition to the mainstream ones. There is also, of course, a tremendous cyber boom, with the emergence of insta poetry, and online poetry forums. Additionally, there is the emergence of spoken word and slam poetry, which focuses on poetry as performance rather than written text.”

Photograph by Radhika Agarwal

Mustansir Dalvi, poet, editor, and translator further adds about the use of the internet for poetry, “The Internet allowed the accessibility of poetry far and wide, beyond libraries and bookstores. The rise of social media freed poets and poetry writers from the necessity of physical publishing and allowed them to share freely online, to circles of like-minded audiences and beyond. The popularity of literature festivals meant that poets came together to read their work in front of larger and larger audiences. And finally, the rise of independent publishers, who took advantage of changing technologies of printing, distribution, and sales, made the physical book available and accessible to a huge number of consumers.”

While Sarabjeet Garcha, the founder and editor of Copper Coin publishing says, “The readership of poetry has always been in the minority since time immemorial. The art form still survives because you don’t know where the poem will lead you. You can interpret it as it comes and come up with something new. It isn’t a mold, it can be changed. Resilience, love for existence, only poetry has it."

Now, I’ve often scratched my head over this idea that if poetry has managed to live on for so many years, why does it have such few readers? What stops people from picking up a poetry book for comfort, for revolutionary ideas, when these tiny reads can give one whatever they ask for in a shorter span as compared to prose? According to Hemant Divate, poet, editor, and publisher at Poetrywala, “The seed is planted through education, through English textbooks that teach poetry, and hence, there is a dire need to revive them and introduce contemporary Indian poets through them. Education plays a major role in sparking curiosity for poetry in young readers, yet the English textbooks in India keep them limited to poets from the UK or worse make them answer questions about poetry which is a bad use of the brain.”

Still, all is not lost. Where education fails to spark curiosity about poetry, new forms of poetry step in. Spoken word and open mics have become a major avenue for poetry to make itself heard especially amongst a younger audience. Although Menka Shivdasani, poet, editor, and co-founder of Poetry Circle, Mumbai, believes that the tradition of oral poetry is not new at least in India, as she mentions in an email interview, “Indian literature has always been rich in its oral traditions. Kavi Sammelans and Mushairas continue to be very much a part of our culture even today; the three-day Jashn-e-Rekhta in New Delhi is just one example of this. Audiobooks and open mics are a welcomed trend because it helps poetry reach a wider range of audience. Open mics, especially, appeal to a younger audience.”

Subramaniam reiterates the importance of spoken word poetry as she says, "The democratization ushered in by the internet, coupled with the fact that we live in an age dominated by fake news, is also responsible for a growing need among people to write their own scripts and speak their own truth. Everyone wants to tell their own stories, not outsource them. The open mic is also born of this need to reclaim that personal power. The live nature of public reading also motivates listeners to return to a form they may otherwise have lost touch with.”

Yes, people listening to poetry is good enough for the art form to survive, but what about poetry that speaks to silence? That stays hidden in between pages and metaphors in today’s audio-visual world? “Old style poetry is much more enjoyable,” says Hemant Divate. Sarabjeet Garcha voices, "Social media is good for visibility, but serious readers still prefer books.”

Photograph by Radhika Agarwal

Photograph by Radhika Agarwal

Arundhathi Subramaniam has read poetry books all her life but has found good international poetry that has contributed to her life in several ways online. Menka Shivdasani wonders whether the definitions of good poetry are changing in the Instagram era where work that would have been considered mediocre previously is being published and applauded.

However, the crux of the whole thing is that through mediums and themes, voices and words, even with small audiences poetry lives on. “Poetry will change as life changes. People write from what’s personal and unspeakable to something loud, anything under the sun for that matter,” remarks Divate. His insight on themes of poetry highlights why poetry has managed to live despite appealing to a selective audience. No other medium allows freedom and unfettered expression like poetry does, a fact that shows itself in Subramaniam's observation of poetry styles, “An accessible articulation of emotional issues ranging from cultural identity to personal trauma.” She also shares a beautiful excerpt from her essay on themes of poetry.

“The preoccupations are no less varied. There is Rukmini Bhaya Nair’s need to implicate cultural studies and literary theory in poetry as well as Meena Alexander’s need to speak of the Pamba River and the ash trees of New York in the course of a single poem.”