Poetry at Sangam
Poetry at Sangam showcases poetry in English and translations as well as essays on poetics and news of new releases.
Maithreyi Karnoor is the author of the novel Sylvia: Distant Avuncular Ends. Her poems were twice shortlisted for The Montreal International Poetry Prize. She is the recipient of the Charles Wallace India Trust Fellowship 2022 for translation and creative writing. She was shortlisted for the Lucien Stryk Asian Translation Prize and was awarded the Kuvempu Bhasha Bharati Prize for translation. Her poems, reviews, translations and essays have appeared in Agni, The Hindu, The Indian Express, Deccan Herald, Mint Lounge, Muse India, The Hindu Businessline and Joao-Roque Literary Journal among others.
These poems are from The Personnel is Poly Tickle, a collection I am currently working on. Until about a year ago, I had dismissed (like most writers who think they are taking themselves seriously) humour for fashionable melancholia in my writing. But something happened during the height of the pandemic when everything seemed impermanent and irrational that made me seek refuge in humour — it was almost like a need to expend the laughter in me before it was too late. Encouraged by Rhys Hughes, I began exploring word play as a tool and I’m delighted to say I found great profundity in humour. I have been reading from the collected works of Ogden Nash recently and he is easily one of my influences. There is also Roger McGough, Dorothy Parker, Wislawa Szymborska among others. But I think my Indian sensibility in all this is rather strong and I intend to hold on to it.
Fluency, I think, is a matter of comfort rather than the adherence to pedantic rules. And when one gains fluency, one starts to play with language. I use pun, parody and patois as playthings. I find lyrical verse to be as freeing as free verse. In fact, rhyme and metre schemes act like scaffolding for words to trapeze and waltz within. And anything from the itch I can’t reach to the end of civilization to the shape of my breakfast roti can be a topic. Poetry or otherwise, I think it is important to be able to laugh at oneself.
Third World Literature as National Allergy
This site is designed and maintained by GONECASE