RE: Who's a Poet?

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>When can a form of expression be declared "almost dead" - if not many use
>that >form for a quarter of a century, a century?

This mail echoes a lot of my sentiments. Over the past few days, other than
posting a solitary n-screenful (n being a very large number) 15k mail, I
have been reading all the mails on this topic with some interest, and some
amusement.

In situations like this, there are lot of "straw-man" arguments put up and
"successfully" demolished. The amusing aspect is to to see such instances
in the mails of people who are decrying them! And it is not difficult to
find inconsistencies in arguments, from one mail to another.

The discussion about whether si-nA-re is a poet/bad-poet/non-poet has been
carried in this forum about an year ago. If I can paraphrase what I said at
that time, it is not necessary to put down s-nA-re, or pOtukUci sAmbasiva
rAvu, to prop up SrISrI. As to "carvita-carvaNam" in si-nA-re's or any
other poet's, or poets' works, I smile to myself when I remember a SrISrI's
poem

        hippOpoTAma sokka bi-
        shappunu gani yaDige niTlu, "swAmee! meerel-
        lappuDu ceppindAnnE
        ceppaDa mencEta?" nanucu siri siri muvvA!

Two things. Bishops, by the very nature of their mandate, have to say the
same thing again and again, often in the same way. So I consider this as a
"straw-man" low-blow. My second point is, in how many khanDikas in
mahA-prasthANam can you find the same thing being said again, albeit in
another way? And in many modern "hunger-thirst-death" poetry? So, is the
criticism (of repetition) fair?

I don't know if this is the context, but I wanted to post this poem
(perhaps written in the fifties)

        prEyasi kanTi lOna kanipinceDi teeyani swargamokkaTE
        dhyEyamu kAdu, heenu lati deenulu, mlAna tanul, daridra nA-
        rAyaNu lEDcucunDiri, tadaSRvulan tuDuvanga bommu nee
        prEyasi tODa; nee kaTa labhincunu kOTla kolandi swargamul

I'll leave the authorship at this time. The point is "pain" in many forms
has been expressed before. It is not the "jAgeer" of the modern poets.

One final point. There are many posts saying "no more discussions on
chandas", or somesuch general idea.

No one in this medium dictates discussions on any topic. This whole thread
has been started by vElUri's post. Those that have an interest, post their
views on either side of the argument. And some, on both sides of it. When
the interest dies, the posting stops. There is no force prescribing posts
on this topic, or proscribing those on another topic. In fact, there have
been some posts on khAkee lives, while all of this is going on.

So, if the debate on a topic doesn't interest you, stay out of it. Take a
break. Or start another topic.

In the cliched vein of "don't curse the darkness ...", I am going to post
(as time permits) some "modern poetry", and watch the audience reaction, as
they get panned or praised. To inhibit instinctive knee-jerk outbursts of
either persuasion, I'll leave the authorship anonymous for a week. Should
be intersting.

Here's the opening salvo.

First, a snippet from the preface.

        "ee nADu telugu kavulu renDu bhinna mArgAlugA unnaTTu
kAnavastunnAru. ekkuva mandi jAteeya bhAva pravAhamtO sAgi pOyE vAru. mari
kondaru EvO doora-teerAla meedi ASatO, ikkaDi paristhitulaku anuguNam kAni
siddhAntAlanU, norASanU, vaiklabyAnnee, kasi dwArA himsanU, vidwamsAnnee
prabOdhincE vAru. ayitE idi kAlamtO pATu spandincE vAri sangati. inkA
cAlAmandi tama 'danta' gOpurAllO sampradAyamanE pEra tAmu AgipOyina ceekaTi
guhallO, swaccha kavitA siddhAntAla maikamlO munigi tElutU unnAru."

    pratibha yannadi nitya nUtnamu
    pratibha kavitaku prANa sAramu
    pratibha prakaTita maina cOTanu
    prAta krottalu lEvu kavitaku

    krAnta darSana munna cOTanu
    kAvya gatulaku lEvu ellalu
    dRshTi dOshamu lEni cOTanu
    kAla dOshamu lEdu kavitaku

    niyama mannadi nikkamagu sam-
    skAra jeevita sAra sUtramu
    niyati kavitaku kAvya bhAshaku
    ninDu jeevamu, viluva, nilukaDa.

    sarwa sAraswatamu nabhiruci
    sAkshikammadi bhAva gamyamu.
    bhAvamannadi vyakti nishThamu
    vyakti-vyaktiki vAsi galadadi.
    sArwa kAlikamaina satyamu
    kAna nAnA kAvya carcala
    valadu valadativADa Souryamu (looks like this stanza is missing a line )

    kAvya madi yadhikAra gamyamu.
    manishi manishiki tAratamyamu
    kaladu, kAvuna kAdu kAvyamu
    sarwa janulaku santa vastuvu.

    pragati Seelamu nati viSAlamu
    nagu carAcara jagati lOpala
    kAvya gati mArgamu lanEkamu
    sumukha jana sugamamulu sarwamu
    sahRdayata yandali rahasyamu
    sarwa sat-patha sAmarasyamu    - kAvya sUktamu by ....

Ramakrishna

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