The American poet TS Eliot might have declared April as “the cruellest month” but the avalanche of thoughtful, occasionally, technically executed, responses to prompts brings the rain and the relief of poetry to us all, this month. Started exactly two decades ago, in April 2003, Washington-based poet, Maureen Thorson, began writing a poem a day, for the month, and posting them on her blog. Over a couple of years, a global community has joined her in this daily poetry writing practice. Since 1996, the Academy of American Poets have instituted April as the month to draw attention and awareness to poetry. And NaPoWriMo is one the most popular ‘unofficial programmes’ of this initiative that has seen poets, publishers, booksellers and teachers from across the world find wonderful ways to celebrate poetry in all of its glory.
Lately, the notion that poetry is ‘too highbrow’ for everyone has been completely rubbished. It isn’t something to love secretly. Instead, people are loudly declaring their love for the written word on their feeds and among their friends. The auditoriums at poetry festivals are packed; it is being programmed into the monthly cultural calendar of venues; and writing workshops are eagerly attended. People aren’t just writing and reading about their lost loves, but are stepping up in open mics to talk about public politics and private pleasures. And a whole lot of them are wrestling with different forms, from the sonnet to the ghazal to freeverse, and everything in between. Many Indian poets across the country have played their part, too, in popularising this coming together of and writing poetry. NaPoWriMo, in that regard, has played a significant role.
Bengaluru-based Rohini Kejriwal, the curator behind popular arts and culture newsletter, The Alipore Post, started participating in NaPoWriMo seven years ago, while looking for “an excuse” to return to her own writing practice. “I find myself still only writing in April or while travelling. Initially, I would follow the ‘official’ prompt list put up on napowrimo.net. But for the past five years, I’ve been putting out my own prompts through the newsletter,” she tells us. NaPoWriMo has also been an assuring answer to the question: I want to write, but where do I begin? For many first-time writers, finds Goa-based spoken word poet Rochelle D’Silva and founder of The Poetry Retreat, “The prompts give these writers a place to start and help them with working out an idea.”
“It’s also a public reminder that poetry doesn’t just flow out of the poet. It is difficult, disciplined work. It isn’t just the result of channelling one’s feelings, or another cathartic act, but an artform that requires the development and honing of skills,” she adds. And for more accomplished poets, or those like D’Silva who have been staying with the ritual of NaPoWriMo for nearly a decade, the prompts play another role as well. “There are many different organisations and individual poets, who put out plenty of prompts. And so, one can find the channel that speaks to you most. Or you can follow two different prompts — either merge the ideas, or take an idea from one prompt list and take a poetic form from another list, to create your poem for that day,” she says of the potential to mix and match, and make one’s own way.
Though NaPoWriMo isn’t just about writing thirty poems in a single month, it is also about reading, responding and reposting these poems across platforms. To that end, social media platforms have been a welcome distribution network for poets, observes Kolkata-based poet, writer and model, Karuna Ezara Parikh. “There’s been a growing insistence of poetry on platforms like Instagram and Twitter with entire accounts dedicated to simply posting poetry. And I have even begun to notice it being shared from the most unlikely accounts and people on my own feeds, which is extremely encouraging. People might not know the canon of poetry or be able to quote Blake’s The Tyger, but they are still able to appreciate and see the value in the poems they do come across,” she opines. This doesn’t just exist on virtual platforms, but is reflected in the real world, too. “Even the major publishers have started working with poets, including me, because of the positive responses and ready audiences from these platforms. They’ve taken note and are willing to invest in it,” she says, pointing to a trend in poetry circles. While Parikh admits, “I don’t have a daily writing practice. I spend a lot of my time doing the research, reading others, thinking about writing and letting desire stew. It is during the challenge of NaPoWriMo in April that I’m more prolific than any other time of the year.” She does love this exercise because it “shakes things up for her”.
Revered poet and novelist, Jeet Thayil, who recently compiled The Penguin Book of Indian Poets, hopes that NaPoWriMo will remind both accomplished and amateur poets “that writing poetry is a lengthy life sentence. One does it whether they like it or not.” “But having a daily, disciplined approach to the practice of poetry doesn’t hurt. How can it be a bad thing to write a poem a day,” he asks, adding that he would want it to go on through the year. “Why restrict it to a month? Why not NaPoWriYear or better still, NaPoWriLife? Even today, I find it hard to start the first few lines of a poem, but once I have worked it out, it is such a pleasure to return to it and continue the work. If a prompt can nudge out that elusive beginning of a poem, why not,” he emphatically declares. He suggests collecting all of the different prompt lists through this month, and then using them as poetry writing exercises throughout the year. While a younger, cockier version of Thayil would have said, “ridiculously rude things about this initiative,” his present-day, wiser self thinks the whole public appreciation and participation in poetry throughout NaPoWriMo is “simply fantastic”.
