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Poetry Review |
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excerpts from review |
MAKING A POEM |
The
Journal of The Poetry
Society ( India ), |
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The Journal of The Poetry Society ( India ) : Making A Poem - The aim of the book, Making A Poem , is to make the reader aware of the process of writing poetry . The book is divided into the following sections: Are You Looking for that Poet ? ; The Poet as a Young Man ; Making A Poem ; A Poem Comes Alive and A Poet . One of the pleasures gained by reading Vihang Naik’s poetry is the awareness that every poem, both singly and when placed together as a body of work , demonstrates a belief in the possibilities language might have to truthfully and energetically communicate the writing experience. Naik does not distract himself with enquiries into problems of subjectivity and textuality, and although many poems in this collection are innovative and exploratory, Naik has faith in a poetry that can presume to speak the poet’s life with clarity and wisdom. In this way his work should appeal to the shared experience of other writers and their common histories, and seek to render the function of poetry as a vehicle for insight, as a conduit between the individual and his wider readership. Making A Poem is, therefore , an intriguing work to appear at a time when what could be called a “revival” in poetry writing is taking place. “Are You Looking for that Poet?” the first section of the book, explores the theme that correspondences between lived experience and constellations of memory, concept and language can stimulate the creation of a poem . Naik’s references to “dreams” and “secrets” also suggest, in addition to their being put to use as tropes of the transcendent, a broader sensitivity to the materials of experience and understanding. The first poem in this section, “Woman and Man” , performs a gesture of “myth-making” : “You / cannot make a poem / that would vanish in the night.” The poem is short and simple; the poet’s physical and imaginative thoughts generate a poem that is intuitive and thoughtful. Naturally, the world of the poet, if imagined infinitely, will somehow always exceed the capacity for language to describe it , and Naik appears to say to the reading in “A Reader’s Response” that the act of reading poetry is not a harmless process : “Reading a book / of poems may not be / that innocent.” In this way he places himself within what could loosely be defined as a hermetic tradition, where the action of language and myth via poetic consciousness enacts a revelation of the moment of creativity. In the second section , “The Poet as a Young Man” , Naik focuses on the young writer’s development as a poet : “At seventeen you write a poem.” ( At Seventeen” ). The poems are made more interesting by their constant focus on sensual experience, the poet’s delight in the opaque zone / of language” , “a blank stare / against the page / of time” , and “He saw an animal in front / of a mirror. / A portrait / of the poet as a young man.” The combined processes of sensation and memory are marked by Naik as the primary ground from which proceed all other processes in the making of the poet. For instance , poems such as “At Seventeen” , “A Play” , “A Story” , show the poet working towards his goal of achieving a successful poem..... - Patricia Prime ( Born in London and migrated to New Zealand - editor of the American magazine Slugfest ) Patricia , Prime . Rev. of Making A Poem , by Vihang Naik . Ed. Sunita Jain ( Guest Editor ) New Delhi , India : The Journal of The Poetry Society ( India ) : Published by Dr. H. K. Kaul , Secretary-General, The Poetry Society ( India ) , ( jour issue ) , Vol.16, Nos . 1-2; March 2005. p.74 - 76. |
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