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“…This year, one of the distinctive features in the selected poems turns out to be that of many poets unravelling their connection with their mothers or fathers – overtly or covertly – either lingering on in memories after their passing or staying alive in the heart through their skills in the kitchen. And then there were those searing lines in the poems stemming from a space of deeply disturbing incidents: Last year, when my father let in the darkest night/ mum vowed to eat all 12 purnima moons/ so their lights would spill out of her/ in the shape of little fairies/ purple and green. Also then there’s the absolutely graphic tribute to what a “father” represents: “they wait on scooters/at right angles to the sun/measuring the slowness of/the summer heat/Against the rapidly approaching bright/future they wish upon their sons.”
Running parallel to these poems are poems that revolve around grandparents – grandmas and grandpas. Through different poetic narratives they convey the wholesome, rounded roles that the older generation has played in shaping the thought processes and personalities of the younger generation. Several poems are, understandably, themed around women too; from references to their shimmering Kanjeevarams, status of their hairdos, their art of cooking, their folding piles of clothes to feeling inconsequential as a housewife on the one hand and on the other, the sexual exploitation of women and also tactically even using the word “women” as a verb: “to woman is to witness/changes in set semantics/the word guilt, for instance.”
One of the concerns to be found in many a poem is that of identity which projects itself through the voicing of angst especially of an exile in one’s homeland. Even though the poet’s concerns are triggered by local as well as global contexts. There is a particular angst of the contemporary times but there are also anxieties regarding the perennial existential predicament of humankind. That is why perhaps the artist/poets struggle to find the right voice and an appropriate form to express themselves.
It may be pointed out here that the current Yearbook carries quite a diversity of forms of poetry. From haibun to haiku, ghazals to concrete poems, our poets have been experimenting with form with a serious engagement. Ghazals included here are embellished with words from the original Urdu or Hindu, thus lending a layer of authenticity and richness to the verses. The ghazals in this year’s edition are particularly poignant and interestingly, on varied themes as well. In free verses too there are some lines boldly included in the original Tamil, Telugu or Malayalam languages, some even in their original script, others in anglophone phonetics proving without doubt that this is poetry unmistakably from India. Poetry here seems to be embracing all four directions of our land not to forget the beautiful north-east. Some poems are dedicated to the recent unrest in Manipur by poets living in other parts of the country, alongside is the exquisite poetry written by poets from the north-eastern regions. The unpretentious expression about nature, rivers and trees and native culture is particularly remarkable: “I’ve learned to live with the land/not from the land, and sometimes/the mountain sings back to me. “ It is heartening that this volume has several pertinent poems on environment and ecology: “If trees are my ancestors/then all elements on the earth/are proofs of my history.” Forceful, impactful and powerful poems. The degenerative condition of nature around us is prodding poets to take up these themes with an urgency as though in a desperate bid for corrective measures.
Whatever be the form or content of the poems in the Yearbook, each poem possesses a universal and comprehensive appeal even though it emerges from the personal space of the poet. That is the beauty of putting together an anthology like this; showcasing poems born from the unique experiences of the poet but being read and understood by readers globally due to their universal appeal. The personal turns relevant, the distinctive turns intimate and the particular turns characteristic of the general human being.
As editors, we have also been very attentive to the issue of the use of language by the poets writing in English in these times. Gradually, Indian poetry in English seems to have come of age and the carpet is laid out for the demonstration of both, the variety of styles as well as plurality of concerns, being brought to light for the world to glance at our inner cartography. What is pertinent is to also acknowledge the “owning” of English language here, the process that was discussed by the eminent writer Raja Rao in his Preface to Kanthapura (1938): “We are all instinctively bilingual, many of us writing in our own language and in English. We cannot write like the English. We should not. We can write only as Indians… Our method of expression therefor,e has to be a dialect which will some day prove to be as distinctive and colourful as the Irish or the American.”
Well, Raja Rao’s prophesy has come true. Most of the poems collected in the four volumes of the Yearbooks amply reflect that in the tonal quality, idiom as well as rhythms, they reflect a bilingual sensibility. Written in English, they are well rooted in the culture, be it Punjabi, Malayalam or any other that the poems may emerge from. There is also the courage of retaining the untranslatable words or the idioms in the poems written in the original English.
The four volumes of the Yearbook are a wake-up call to critics and scholars: these Yearbooks offer enough selected Indian poetry of recent times, for them to formulate a critical treatise on the subject; in addition, the sense of tradition growing in contemporary poetry calls for serious attention. The body of creative work showcased in the Yearbook now seeks theoretical tools to examine this poetry critically.”
The fourth volume of Yearbook of Indian Poetry is yet another book of poems in the Series, carefully selected from poetry published in the previous year and submitted by Indian poets writing in English in India and abroad. Each year with the help of a jury, the editors select nearly 125 poems anonymously for the Yearbook.
Excerpted with permission from Yearbook: Indian Poetry in English 2023, edited by Sukrita Paul Kumar and Vinita Agrawal, Pippa Rann Books.
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