With power to unite the world against all negativity, poetry continues to remain one of the simplest yet most intense form of expression, believe some of the most revered poets of the country.
Annually, March 21 has been observed across the globe as World Poetry Day since 2000 following a proclamation by the United Nations to recognise the unique ability of poetry to capture the creative spirit of the human mind.
"I don't believe that it is I who has made poems, but it is the poems which have made me. And I believe all the poets must have experienced that their writings are the best, simplest and most intense means of expression," says Ashok Chakradhar, a legendary Hindi poet.
On the "recipe" of poetry, the 65-year-old poet says, "a poem is created during intense moments and requires intense skills of a poet who along with his brain and knowledge needs an objective to write. Further the poet can add salt or pepper according to the requirement.
"If one wants to strike with satire, they may increase the content of pepper. One need not take out a sword when they have satire," Chakradhar told PTI.
"On this World Poetry Day, I would want our younger generation to write poems that could be understood by the masses and for that they should read and devote themselves to 'chhand shastra' (meter-science). Be it India, or any part of the world where good poetry is written, reach out to it. It is only after one reads good poetry that their fingers itch to write a good poem," says the poet.
Legendary Gopal Das 'Neeraj', reckoned as the pole star of Hindi poetry, says "Poetry is the enjoyment of the finest brains of the country. Poetry is the word-form of the beauty of the soul; one is lucky enough to be born as human, and luckier still if a poet.
The 92-year-old Padma Bhushan awardee believes poetry is
for the cause of humanity but is, however, concerned over the deteriorating standard of Hindi poetry symposiums.
"Facetiousness has replaced the genuine poetry. Poetry stands for seriousness, but there are some stages where jokes are cracked in the name of poetry. But, there are still some people who take poetry with the seriousness that it was meant to be taken with," says Neeraj.
Dr Rahat Indori, one of the leading contemporary Urdu poets, believes that amid several languages being spoken across the globe "poetry is the mother tongue of the world."
"Shayari rooh ki ghiza bhi hai, aawaaz bhi (Poetry is both the nourishment and the voice of the soul). It's a huge power that can help overcome all the negativity prevalent in the world. It has the power to bring people closer and work for the betterment of society and humanity," says Indori.
The prominent Urdu poet says, "One may not be skilled in a particular language to understand what the poetry says, they just have to feel it to understand its gist."
"My message to the admirers of poetry and even to those who don't understand it is - come closer to the poetry. Although it is the age of science and the internet, with which poetry is finding hard to match pac...But it fills me with joy every time I go for recitals in IITs and other engineering colleges where youths turn up in huge numbers to listen to poetry," he says.
"Poetry reaffirms our common humanity by revealing to us that individuals, everywhere in the world, share the same questions and feelings. Poetry is the mainstay of oral tradition and, over centuries, can communicate the innermost values of diverse cultures," says the UN, which adopted the proclamation to observe March 21 as WPD during UNESCO's 30th session held in Paris in 1999.
