Yesterday marked one year of Poetly. The poetry reading on Sunday to celebrate this little anniversary received a tremendous response (youtube links shared in this mail below). As poets, and lovers of poetry we thought together about the meaning of a “new language”. The title of the event was inspired by a poem from Rajutai (one of the featured poets) and recontextualised within the current historical moment, addressing the importance of the poetry of hope and dissent in the times we live in.
Poetly began with some very simple, unformed ideas - “Poetry daily”; “A poem a day”; “a potli of poetry”. At the heart of everything, though, lies the impulse to reach out, to connect - community. As time passed, the space evolved to include events, conversations, and other possibilities. The regularity waxed and waned, but the space and the community that has formed around it is now a living thing, an organism that has memory, and can feel emotion. The many responses to the posts and events that have come on different platforms have only fortified my belief that in the most trying of times, it is the artist that gets to work, quietly, finding silence in the noise, and creating a space for hope, that “thing with feathers”.
I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to you for being a part of this journey. I leave you with Toon Tellegen’s poetry of hope, with the fervent desire that we will continue to draw newer lines.
