A Cento for Poetly's 2nd Birthday

'I must go back briefly to a place that I have loved'

It is October 5th, 2021. Poetly turns two today. This a “Happy Birthday Poetly” post :)

I want to take this opportunity to share some thoughts about this space.   

When I started Poetly, I wanted to share a poem-a-day, with commentary. However, I quickly realised that this is easier said than done. It is not very hard to find beautiful poetry, if that kind of thing interests you. It is not very hard to write poetry, even. It is difficult, however, to stay with what you have written, to let it grow and acquire a life of its own. Many poems that I have written, have died early deaths because of my inability to stay with them, to let them hone themselves into something that is worthy of breath.

But I believe that it is hardest to write about poetry.

I compose each post the way a researcher hurriedly jots down ‘notes from the field’. Treat what you read as an ethnographer's thick description of the way time, space and identity, rainbow into the ink of poets. 

While writing, sometimes, I cheat. I focus on how I feel, rather than what has come from analysis. I let the non-linear, less rational part of my brain run awry. I quote other poets, artists, and philosophers. I share from introductions to books of poetry, and literary criticism. I talk about the lives and journeys of poets. I bring in art, music, film and the glorious mess that is culture. I seek out protest and dissent, love and erotica. These things, of course, are not ‘tiresome’ for me in any way. They are natural to my style of creation. Initially I would do these random things tentatively, curbing my impulse to cite Blixa Bargeld, while talking about Goreti Venkanna, or the sharing of a pop cultural fragment in the form of a Cadbury jingle, while talking about the songs of Tinariwen. But not any more. I give uninhibited freedom to this theatre of fictional encounters, simply because I can. So it gives me joy to place Auden's 'Musée des Beaux Arts' in actual conversation with Bruegel's ‘Landscape with the Fall of Icarus’. It gives me solace to let Kaveh Akbar do the talking, while Mark Strand stands silently, waiting in the wings, eager to share his poem about poems. 

For me, this is a method that is rooted in the free tenets of metaphor. It is a kind of juxtaposition, a journey between different domains of experience. And as I oscillate between these domains, sometimes I fall into the comfortable limbo of epiphany. This where the magic happens. I'm sure that any translator will affirm that the new language that is created while recrafting a text, is neither source nor target, but somewhere in between. And so it is that I attempt to translate experience, interpret reality and have a gentle dialogue with  my personal pantheon of poets. Sometimes, if Providence is passing, our gods meet.

I have started accepting the unfinished, raw nature of my narratives about poems, and I share them with more confidence. But this confidence is tarred by a daily struggle to avoid excess, to avoid doing to metaphor, what selfies do to identity. I think we must hold the world with great care, we must lay claim to a thing with the utmost circumspection. I aspire to a state of detachment, a place where I do not to have to 'own' an experience to make it meaningful. Until then, this space is my riyaz.  

Poetly wants to be a poet-tree, with you, dear readers, as its leaves.

I want to thank you all for always receiving my words with love. Many of you write in with your responses - Know that I take what you say very seriously. I think, you will tire of hearing from me that a good poem is about communication, about touching another, about community. Nothing has ratified this for me more than this space. In the last couple of years I have met so many beautiful people through Poetly, and for me, that is the greatest reward. For others who have been silently reading, I urge you to write in with suggestions, thoughts, and ideas. I would love to hear from you!   

I had planned to launch a couple of allied initiatives today, but I haven’t had the time to make the pages live on the website. I will be sharing these with you soon.

For those of you who would like to do guest posts, please get in touch with me directly – Write in to poetly@pm.me. I will be sharing a series of guest posts on Poetly’s ‘birthday month’, starting with the next post.

For many days I had been thinking of which poet’s work to share today to mark this moment. Then this morning, I woke up with an idea. I didn’t think too much, I just went “back briefly to a place that I have loved”. I went into the Poetly archives, and I came back holding this Cento. Here take it. Tread softly…

love, always
ajinkya

P.S. This Cento or patchwork/collage poem has been composed mostly of first lines from poems featured on Poetly. There are 3 last lines that I have used in the penultimate couplet, and the final tercet. Many of you will recognise these lines borrowed from different poems. I will share the names of poets in the next post, only because I think it will be fun to try and guess them. Feel free to go through the archives in the Newsletter, website or on Instagram if you need to.

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