Poetry and me

My relationship with poetry is not steady. We share an on/off relationship and the reason is simple.

 There are times when I understand a complex poem and there are times when people 'waah' waah' about a poem and I don't understand even a word of it. Those are times when i really dislike poems.So simply put ,When I understand the poem, I love it. When I don't understand, I don;t like.

But, during my school days, I loved poems and my earliest memory with poems dates back when I was in Class 4. My higher English teacher Shalini Raju had asked for the meaning of Chanticleer in poetry class and no one but me who sat in the last bench shouted "Cock" and my teacher was mighty impressed and asked the class to clap for me. What a wonderful moment that was, I still remember the place where i sat, the orientation of the benches,  the design of my class, the beautiful and tall stained glass windows and the steps that led out to the ground.

That was the beginning, From then on poems of  Wordsworth ( she dwelt among the untrodden ways one of my favorites) , Robert louis stevenson,  Robert Frost,Longfellow(Rain in Summer another fav of mine)  Sarojini naidu, Rabindranath tagore, kuvempu, pancha mangesh rai  etc...were all enchanting to me. In kannada, Punyakoti poem is one of the most touching and beautiful poem which has been  made into a film . When this poem was  explained the whole class was moist eyed.Often my teachers would decode the poems for us and it was interesting how beautifully the poems rhymed and made sense.  There were times, when  I myself would decode the poems and when it turned out correctly, I  would feel as though  I accomplished a great task.  Reciting, memorizing and writing the poems with correct punctuation also got you full marks. This is one of the sections in English which gets us full marks. So Poetry was my love in school. 

Later, When Higher english gave way to Sanskrit in another school I enjoyed Dramas more than poetry,  I was exposed to  great poets like Bhasa and Kalidasa's works but somewhere I felt Dramas were more straight forward compared to poems. 

Then , after a long long break, i encountered poetry during my children's early school days. When i had to help them choose or memorize a poem or help them complete a poem with a few guiding words. Together we have attempted a few lines  during their assignments and sometimes i would compose some kiddish lines with rhyming words. That was the only poetry I have ever attempted ....wriiten no major poetry..going by  Frost's defintion...perhaps  my emotions have not found thoughts and words......but  a couple of  years back....I read about Spine poetry in a blog. More on this tomorrow....

P.S: I am trying to knock off the writers block in me and so am attempting to write randomly and incoherently about a few things starting today for a week . Let me see ..if i will do this week long marathon except weekend).Fingers crossed.