ALL HEAD NO HEART?

If you were to ask me to choose between prose and poetry, my vote will go to prose. After a lot of evaluation I have come to the conclusion that the new form of verse tantalises you with immense promise but leaves you feeling underwhelmed. As if you were fooled into entering a world of meaningless ennui.

Harsh words, I admit, considering for me too, just like many of you, the written word holds immense value. I marvel at how authors experiment with words and phrases to conjure new meanings and expand our horizons, offering their unique perspectives. I believe words are precious and therefore should be used with care. And prose quite often does that.

Poetry, on the other hand, has become a victim of irreverence for the written word. It has lost its sense of purpose, I feel. In its effort to break away from form and format, it has lost its direction.

I know fans of poetry, such as my colleague Shreeja Ravindranathan, who sat with Emirati-Japanese poet Afra Atiq to talk about her view of the spoken word (read her interview on page 20), will troll me off the planet for showing no respect for ‘imagination’; for lacking the skills to decipher the fantastical maze of language. They might even list me as someone

Poetry has become a victim of irreverence for the written word. In its effort to break away from form and format it has lost its direction

too practical and pedantic; for not having the necessary ability to understand the surreal subtext, the mystical ambiguity and plausible fluidity of poetry, but I am not changing my opinion any time soon.

PS: Shreeja, I did enjoy reading the interview with Afra. Maybe because it is well-articulated prose?