Sculpting Silence With Words

 Why are so many of us drawn to poetry? What makes us revel in the act of conjuring up images someone may or may not have intended with their words? Why is proximity to the real intention quite irrelevant in our engagement with the form? For all this and more, the simplest answer is perhaps that poetry is, as far as experiences go, a very personal one. It comes alive only in the moment when we, the reader, enters the picture. Words on a page ignite  something deep within our being and we  suddenly find ourselves lifted out of our humdrum routines into a sensual and often enchanting experience.

In poetry, words themselves are mere turrets we climb up on to pan the wide ocean of our deepest feelings. The skill of the poet lies in choosing words that serve as perfect vantage points, lighted stations from where we may witness the evoking of our truest emotions from their phantasmagoric existence. In that way,  it is the silence between the words that hold the key to the subliminal poetic experience.

If poets are architects with words and poetry is the art of sculpting silence between them, then Marianne Moore was a poet who mastered the art. She understood that the power of words lie in what is left unsaid. She often played with this to staggering effect. Skimming through her entire volume of works is like walking through a corridor lined with new doors of perception. Open any and the way you see the world will be a little less the same. To reconcile the irreconcilable - that was her forte. With her poetry, she draws wide parallels between the mundane and the extraordinary. Things you have known and felt all your life will suddenly take on a new hue, look different, smell different and feel different. Traits never before noticed suddenly gain weight and gravitas. They then parade before you demanding for a re-calibration of your perceptions.

 There is no argument among readers that Moore's poetry transcends the realm of the typical poetic experience. Her works are often criticized to be complex and difficult and not for the ordinary reader. But things that are difficult and obtuse beg  to be looked harder at and in Moore's defense, her words always carry the allure for us to dig further. The more we look, the more complete is our engagement and then in any random moment, the words on the page may suddenly open up and yield its darkest secrets. The resulting resonance is nothing short of magical.

Moore’s lifelong quest was to illuminate, through her poetry, the truths that lie concealed in the deep, dark realms of life. By revisiting one of her beautiful poems here, we wish to remind you of the vast collection of her gems out there, patiently waiting for us, readers, to tap into and be transformed.

 

A Jelly-Fish

 

Opening Doors Within Ourselves

 Life is hard and all of us are endowed with our fair share of pain, loss and suffering. The most deformed outcome of such experiences is when they end up making us create towering walls around ourselves - walls within which, we sweat and stew, alone, in a hot pot of our emotions. Usually, such limited scape and isolation leaves us craving for some kind of release. Yet the innate vulnerabilities and fears we carry on our back drains us even of the desire to look for ways out . Our only recourse, then, for some relief, is to turn to great art and literature. Through them, we discover that there are always doors that can be opened; secret portals, that lead to the understanding that we are not as alone as we assumed ourselves to be. From them, we get to chance upon boundless pools of hope, courage and inspiration; plenty for our worn beings to replenish and draw strength from, on life's onward journey.
 

Despite all the resources at our beckoning, only a few men and women in history have been able to glean mesmerizing beauty from heart wrenching pain. Across time, such lives glower as beaming beacons of hope, guiding home the lost souls that follow. Anna Akhmatova and her life and work is one such beacon for generations of young readers. No part of her life was easy and yet she trod on stoically, capturing every mood and every emotion she felt like these moments were personally addressed to her. She as the addressee, was obligated to record these moments and emotions for posterity and because of this, her poems reveal to us a glimpse of the beauty she chiseled out of all the chaos and despair surrounding her in dark times.
 

We pay tribute to this great lady from the Russian canon by presenting two of her short and beautiful poems that evoke a sense of deep nostalgia. Her poems awaken emotions you are most familiar with but perhaps never found as beautiful.
It is said that while reading the best kind of poetry, something gigantic enters your soul - a deep silent presence that will leave you feeling deeper and wider than yourself. No matter how you describe it, what is assured is that as you long as you let it permeate your being, you will never be the same again.

 Memory Of Sun

 

  Departure

 

 

 

 

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