I Don't Think Poetry Will Save Us. And Yet, and Yet...

I don't think poetry will save us. And yet, and yet... *

 

* Quote from Sarah Kay's letter in Airplane Poetry Movement's "A Letter A Poem A Home"

 

Why poetry? Publishers don't like it, people don't buy it, poets earn virtually nothing out if it. I can't day it better than what the amazing redoubtable poet Arundhathi Subramaniam said about "Why poetry?"

 

"Because it is the art of the murmured voice. If it raises its pitch, it distorts its own reality, compromises its own integrity. It is a reminder of the magic of the whisper, the sorcery of the hushed voice.

 

Because it disrupts all those snug oppositions I otherwise live by: day and night, precision and passion, mystery and illumination, work and play, truth and beauty. Poetry is about allowing lunar concerns into my day. About bringing question marks rather than full stops into my life.

 

Because it reminds me that ideas are crunchy and things smoky. That there are passions of the mind and ideologies of the gut.

 

Because of its suddenness, its distillation, its toxic shock clarity, its verbal single maltness.

 

Because words don’t come easy. And when they do, they’re meant to be watched — not censoriously, with faith but also with caution. That’s because we don’t just use language, we’re used by it. "

 

(Read Arundhathi Subramaniam's essay in full here.)

 

I am Sunil Bhandari.

 

I am a poet based in India. My book of poetry 'Of Love and Other Abandonments' was an Amazon bestseller. My second book 'Of journeys & Other Ways to Get Lost' is just out. Both are available as Kindle on Amazon.

Follow me on Instagram at @sunilgivesup.

Get in touch with me on uncutpoetrynow@gmail.com