Poetry, I discovered poetry in my first year of college. I always used to write a diary as a kid and often rhymed unintentionally, but college made me realise I could write and that has been one of the most amazing discoveries of my life ever because that’s how everything changed. We are all born artists, it’s just that we need to realise, and we have been doing poetry ever since we came into this world.
A child who babbles is a poet, creating tunes like “aaaababababa” or gurgling or just laughing, it does sound like music, right? Well, kids cry too but that’s a rant if you see, they don’t have the vocabulary to rant so they cry. But slowly this “inbuilt poetry” is taken away from us. We are taught nursery rhymes which we memorise but we don’t know the stories behind them. Do you know the story behind the Humpty Dumpty?
“Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty-Dumpty had a great fall;
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty together again.”
Humpty Dumpty is a canon ball used in English Civil War and this poem refers to this. For the complete story, figure out yourself. I just wanted to plant a seed of curiosity.
But as we grow up, our education system gives us direction towards science, maths, history, economics and other academic subjects. A child feels accepted when he or she is good at mathematics and hobbies like singing, dancing, poetry, painting are appreciated but they are not properly encouraged from a career point of view but what I believe is that one can truly be happy if he or she earns a living out of his passion for life.
To quote Robin Williams
“We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.”
It is often said that a man turns into a poet when he is in love because darling, loving is our basic nature and when are in love, we are connected with the universe and our soul feels alive and poetry flows like the river flows from mountains to the sea and that poetry is pristine. I started writing poetry when I fell in love with the idea of love and I have written some really cheesy poetry and I could not really evaluate its content and emotions until I came out of that dreamy phase, some were nice, some were sweet, some were profound and some were just, well, let’s just not discuss them. I was naive and sentimental and can be allowed to sound a little mental.Poetry is like a flowing wave, you don’t write poetry, it comes to you. And sometimes you do write just for the sake of it or because you have to write it for a purpose but poetry is beautiful when written drunk and natural because then it is just an outlet of emotions and all emotions are sinless even when they talk about sin. It is extremely necessary to read and listen to poetry when you start writing poetry because only then you understand the difference between writing for yourself and writing for others and for recognition as a poet. And it is good to be critical about one’s own self, given the fact today we have platforms to express, and to be honest, people are writing anything and everything and even getting appreciation which often gets to their heads and in the process, the beauty and the craft is lost.
This World Poetry Day, read something beautiful and if you have not read any poems before, start with Ruskin Bond I would say because he would charm you with his simplicity and will take you on a dreamy breezy ride and then my friends it would be hard for you to come back from his beautiful world. And if you are a poet and poetry lover, well I need not say anything, just find me and we will together share some time and create poetry of our own and let not the time pass by.
Carpe Diem!
Seize the Day.
IT ISN’T TIME THAT’S PASSING
Remember the long ago when we lay together
In a pain of tenderness and counted
Our dreams: long summer afternoons
When the whistling-thrush released
A deep sweet secret on the trembling air;
Blackbird on the wing, bird of the forest shadows,
Black rose in the long ago summer,
This was your song:
It isn’t time that’s passing by,
It is you and I.
-Ruskin Bond
Euphoric Being 