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Friday, April 26, 2019

I don't think we read how-to-write-poetry books on its art and craft to learn how to DIY but to appreciate the writers of those books if they are able to make their books interesting. In the course of it we may or may not pick up some helpful tips on how to write poetry, but the aim of those writers is not exactly, I would think, to help us hone poetry writing skills but to show us how intention may be allied to performance and whether it can be said to have succeeded in terms of effect or affect on the reader, this leading more to questions of criticism and appreciation than of teaching how to write poetry. Learning of alliteration, assonance and consonance, for instance, and then reading of lines supposedly about the cooing of doves and the immemorial murmur of bees in elms, the aim is to make the reader ask is the alliteration done on purpose to imitate the sound of the thing mentioned and is it effective in how the reader perceives it being coincidental with the writer's intention, in which case the writer is said to have succeeded etc. This is of course a very new critical close reading approach and example I have given, but I was addressing a concern raised by Vivek that the writing of poetry is best learned by those reading lots of it, good examples, and not books on the art and craft of poetry. Neat divisions don't exist, so to end with, it is possible to learn by reading poems of masters and books on writing poetry just as it is possible to not learn how to write 'good' poetry, whatever that means to each individual, either way. I was reading the list of books presented, they all come from the West. Except for the one posted later by Vivek by Arvind Krishna Mehrotra. Having both written poetry and written a small pamphlet on how to write poetry found here "https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/222992", and read enough of poetry and of these books my own personal contribution is more than these books I have been helped largely by manifestos in trying to figure out a modus operandi to how to write poetry, or a strategy or an overall game plan, or even a specific way of approach or philosophy as to why one writes poetry and what or how so am putting some links here based on things I read that influenced me in my younger days.
https://www.societyforasianart.org/…/manifesto_futurista.pdf
https://www.tcf.ua.edu/…/SurManif…/ManifestoOfSurrealism.htm
http://writing.upenn.edu/libr…/Tzara_Dada-Manifesto_1918.pdf
http://writing.upenn.edu/libra…/Blast/Blast1-1_Manifesto.pdf - brilliant! 
http://www.languageisavirus.com/…/william-s-burroughs-cut-u…
(this last link is exquisite also for the generators making poetry redundant, despite the seriousness noticed in its practitioners these days.)
I am unable to include Ungaretti and Mandelstam as the pdfs are not on the net.
My list has the same problem which is it is also Eurocentric or American, except for link to my book and the rasa theory one but all the same I think going through these things has helped me a lot in framing welcome diversionary apperçus into poetry and out of it so I share it believing it may help others on the site too

Off prompt

I see the moon
in the pond's black night
I croon my poem
to its twin
I write these words
to no one
Only God reads
and the universe
I am content
The world deserves them not
Like red rose-petals that sway
blushing, at its touch
e'en in the lightest breeze
are my poems
I imagine
meeting
someone that sensitive
We will know from just looking
at each other
what kaajal lines our eyes
this night;
whether that of love, truth
tears or lies
The voices of
the speechless ones
will hold no secrets
for both of us
And when we hold hands
the silence of our laughter
will shake life's very
foundations.

Off prompt

fingers
always accusing
trying to subtly
point out faults
bring you down
when faced with them
turn on
tune in
drop out
so it is like
water off a duck's back

Glopowrimo #26 - 2

GLOPOWRIMO #26- 2
suddenly
one may think of me
that one
or that other one
one of those ones
who used to
visit me daily
spend so much time with me
but now
prefers not to
as there is nothing
anymore to be got from
it
suddenly
while dusting a table
with today's newspaper
or perhaps
at some sight
of someone
who looks a bit like me
suddenly
in some angle
of the light
or at some strain of music
a snatch of it
heard
through some open window
while passing by in a car
or the smell of a particular dish
suddenly
or the taste of some drink
or while pushing back a lock of her hair
and suddenly
I too may remember
and wonder
about someone else
I did that to, too
forgot
went away from
wanting to give nothing more
tired of giving
or having nothing more to give
or about the one that went away
the one who flew away
the one that got away
one went astray
one who flew east
or one who flew west
or one who flew over the cuckoo's nest
one went south
one went north
or why this circumlocution

of one not at rest
friend become stranger
or lover become ex
whether she thinks of me or not at all
suddenly, one moment
one fine sudden day

Glopwrimo 26

Glopowrimo #26
"There is none righteous, no, not one, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God."
Thou shalt not kill
Wrote God with his finger
On a clay tablet
And gave it to Moses
who came down
got angry, and immediately
made some of their own
kill others of their own
The sons of Levi
killed the other Israelites
for the sin of idolatry
while Moses broke the clay tablets
Thou shalt not kill
God wrote again
and gave it, this time
to Moses, in stone
engraved, so that
it could not be broken
and then they killed
and killed and killed
to capture what
Abraham had called
the Promised Land
Thou shalt not kill
said Jesus, to all
but after some years
of getting killed
Christianity
became the state religion of Rome
From being martyrs, they changed it
to being a religion of international killers, galore.
Thou shalt not kill
said Jesus to all
so they burned the witches
held the Crusades
massacred the Saracens and Turks
who killed back
over the Holy Land
hung the heretics
Catholics killed Protestants
Protestants killed Catholics and each other
All in the name of
Thou shalt not kill
Thou shalt not kill
even an ant
said Vardhamana Mahaveera
and Gautama Buddha, later
but Chandragupta Maurya
the Jain chakravarti
and emperor Ashoka
at Kalinga,
both gave the story
quite another twist
as does the fact
 that there are samurais who are senseis
in China, and in Japan
who are Buddhist monks.
Yes. Thou shalt not kill.
Thou shalt not harm
or hurt anyone
or anything
the ancient rishis
taught
in Mahabharath.
Thou shalt not kill
Thou shalt kill
said the Aryans
Kill the asuras
Kill the suryavanshis
So Rama killed
Ravana
Krishna helped Arjuna
to kill
Karna
Thou shalt not kill
Thou shalt not kill
Thou shalt not kill
an innocent soul
said the prophet Mohammed
Peace be on him
but the Mughals came
and killed the ones
who live in what is now
North India
Just or All the same
Thou shalt not kill
Time would end
if I kept on listing
Buddhists in Myanmar killing the Rohingyas
Jews in Germany killed in the Holocaust by Nazis
and in Russia killed in the pogroms by Orthodox Christians
Palestinians in Israel killed by the Jews
Hindus in Pakistan and Bangladesh who got killed
Muslims in India now getting lynched
Christians in Sri Lanka who just got bombed
Partition killings on both sides of the border
The British who killed Indians
The whites who killed the blacks and the aboriginals
who had earlier killed each other as tribals
Godse who killed Gandhi
Sikhs who killed Hindus and Muslims
Hindus and Muslims who killed Sikhs
Those gruesome riots
When Indira was killed
where Sikhs were killed
Communists who kill everyone else
Those everyone else who kill communists
Hindutva fanatics who killed Gauri, Passare and Dabolkar
Atheists who were killed
Atheists who kill others
China that kills

Thou shalt not kill

Animals killed
Birds killed
Trees and plants killed
Insects killed
Water, air, earth, fire, ether all killed, murdered and so the earth killed
Husbands who kill wives
Wives who kill men
Men who kill women
Children who kill parents
Parents who kill children
Families, tribes and clans
who kill each other
and others' families, tribes and clans
Rich who kill the poor
Poor who kill the rich
Caste-based killings
Honour killings
Serial killers
Random loss of temper or self-control killings
Revenge killings
Money-based killings
Suicides
Fratricides, matricides
patricides, pesticides
genocides, homicides
every other fucking -cides
Pakistanis who kill
Indians who kill
Armenian genocide
Serbian genocide
Syrian genocide
Bosnian, Herzegovnian and Latvian genocides
The Sri Lankan genocide
Governments that kill
Armies that kill
Nations that kill
Laws that kill
Law keepers who kill
The lawless who kill
The law breakers who kill
The outlaws who kill
The in-laws who kill
Everybody takes a side
Nuclear deaths
Hiroshima Nagasaki
World War I
World War II
Bhopal deaths
Chernobyl and Fukushima deaths
Thou shalt not kill
Everyone's a killer
Everyone kills
Thou shalt not kill
Thou shalt not kill
Thou shalt not kill
Thou shalt not kill
Thou shalt not kill
Thou shalt not kill
Thou shalt not kill
Thou shalt not kill

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