Re: Who's a Poet?

uday bhaskar (srijna@hotmail.com)
Wed, 28 May 1997 20:43:05 PDT 

Finally, here is a debate worthy of the mighty! Athiratha mahArathulu bari lOki 
digAru. inka rasa~jnyata ki kodavEmundi?

Who is a poet? this sort of begs the question - "what is poetry?"

mahAkavi mAtallO ceppAlante

"kadilEdI kadilincEdI
 penu niddura vadilincEdI"

IMHO, good poetry communicates - bad poetry doesn't.

By extension, a good poet focuses on communication -
a bad poet focuses on pAnditya prakarsha. This has nothing to do with whether 
the poetry is in metre or is verse libre. (That is a whole 'nother debate!).

Skill and competence (did I translate correctly, Rao Gaaru?) are certainly 
necessary if one wants to communicate, more so if one wants to communicate 
effectively. 

However, those are not the definitive (or, in my opinion, even necessary) 
elements of good poetry. To me, two things distinguish good poetry from bad 
poetry - 

1. All good poetry comes out of intensely and extremely personally felt emotions

2. All good poetry comes from a poet who respects his audience, and is sensitive 
to the fact that, above all, he must communicate.

To put it simply, good poetry should not require interpretation. After all, 
isn't poetry the language of the heart?

Just to illustrate what I mean, allow me to quote what I consider to be good 
poetry:

1. "raNa rangam kAni cOtu
     BhU sthalamantA vedakina dorukadu
     gatamantA tadise raktamuna
     kAkuntE kannIlulatO"

2 "kommala kOyila kuhu kuhu manina
    remmala gAlulu usurusuranina
   davvula venuvu savvadi vinina
   alalu kolanu lO gala gala manina
   nIvu vaccEvani nI pilupE vini
   kannula nIridi kalaya cUcitini
   Ghadiya yEni ika vidici pOkumA
   yegasina hRdayamu pagula nIkumA"

3   "srIlu pongina bhAgya sImani mOsa pOyina tammudA
     dEsamantE matti kAdoyi dEsamantE manushyulOyi"
     (Lyrics of a song from the movie dEsamantE manushyulOyi,
      written by, who else, Sri Sri)

And now, just one example of what I consider to be bad poetry
(Once again, an example from movies)

"siva siva sankarA
  BhaktavasankarA
  sambhO hara hara namO namO"

vEturi gAru shows his absolute disregard for the context, and his eagerness to 
show off his pAndityam - imagine, the tribal kannappa doing all these gymnastics 
with sanskrit slEsha!

Regards,

Uday "nenu bhI zara kapitvam septA" Bhaskar




---------------------------------------------------------
Get Your *Web-Based* Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
---------------------------------------------------------