Dialogue at the Goa University

The 3 Litterateurs

The arts, literature and music are food for the soul. These encourage us to be grander human beings in this world. The ongoing visiting research professorship at the Goa University is an opportunity for students and the public to meet and interact with world-renowned, erudite cultural ambassadors of the humanities programme.  Western music in dialogue with the arts, history and philosophy by Professor Santiago Lusard Girelli, University of Seville was a course in the history of western music, beginning with the Gregorian chant in the 5^th century to the post modern, contemporary music of the times. Study of Liberal Arts towards Goodness- Truth-Beauty set the tone for the series of presentations to follow. The evolution of music through the Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, Modern periods of history etched a mind- map in tandem with the profound changes in the philosophy of thought and art prevalent during those times. Live performances by the team of musicians from Seville served as aperitif to the musical entrée of recorded compositions of Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Wagner, Tchaikovsky, Eric Whitacre and many more.

And then, we met the performance poet, novelist, librettist and musician- Jeet Thayil, whose lyrical lucidity and biographical asides through sessions of reading-aloud-a-poem made us co-creators in the creative process of reading and writing poetry. He led a medley of thirty through the literary analyses of lyrical poetry; those beautiful songs of triumph and loss, mingling in clear tonality and ringing with joy of beautiful human speech. 

What good is poetry that cannot be indulged in, celebrated, danced and sung to?  The engaging experience had us revisit poets like Elizabeth Bishop and her dear friend Robert Lowell who, in his poem Skunk Hour, has laid his affection bare for all to see.  The comical yet woebegone interlude with John Berryman and his famous work The Dream Songs, offering depressing vignettes of Berryman alias Henry, led us intrigued for further explorations. A grim, unrelenting portrait of sing-song rhymed quatrains by Theodore Roethke My Papa’s Waltz left us at once contemplative and awed. Robert Creeley’s I Know a Man introduced us to the Black Mountain coterie of poets who excelled in narrowing the unit of structure in the poem down to what could fit within an utterance. Our encounter with Allen Ginsberg, the poet of the beat generation and his poem The Howl, a template used by many to write their own poems, was inspiring. James Wright and his innovative style of using titles and first and last line to great dramatic effect, was a lesson in writing our own poems. Joan Larkin’s poem Origin gave us a feel of ‘unblinking gaze’ and ruthless clarity on heart-wrenching subjects like child abuse.
The class, which started with American poetry and a reserved audience demeanor confronted with a consummate poet, opened out to a warm interactive interlude with an avalanche of cascading verse from Indian poets. Jeet Thayil, a repertoire of Indian poetry, an outcome of his ambitious endeavor to anthologize Indian poetry from Fulcrum magazine in Boston to Bloodaxe and Penguin editions, brought our way an in-depth resource of a canon.  The forays into the voices of Indian English poets threw in a spate of debates on choice of language, context of reading poems …but Jeet Thayil dissuaded arguments in favour of his mission of eulogizing the feel and form of lyrics in poems. The juxtaposition of  very British stylistic technique of Nissim Ezekiel with his prowess at churning out a poem of limited grammar and the spoken everyday English of the people in the streets, made interesting study.   One great benefit I derived was being introduced to many poets I had never previously read, the lost and obscured poets as Jeet called them, whose beautiful verse is not only relegated to back of beyond but is marked by a complete absence, not a print available anywhere. Jeet Thayil came upon Gopal Honnalgere, Srinivas Rayaprol, Lawrence Bantleman,  G.S. Sharat Chandra in old manuscript copies, a treasure trove of lyrical poetry, which was worth an inclusion in the contemporary anthology of Indian poets. Dom Moraes, Eunice de Souza and Manohar Shetty, poets with a Goan connection, were read enthusiastically.
The experience was akin to turning interminable corners in a maze and coming across yet another poet with a unique charm. The poetry reading parleyed into a poetry workshop for those who write their own poems. Sitting through the sessions, it was indeed remarkable to see the ruthless, but constructive appraisal by Jeet of the amateur attempts by the students ( I was really embarrassed by mine).  His definitive encouraging, truthful and restful approach evoked even the reticent voices to speak and add to the ongoing exchange.

The songs of delight reached a crescendo on the last day, 22^nd August, 2013, when Jeet Thayil performed his poems on stage in a public event. Standing upright nonchalantly, he effortlessly ploughed through his original pieces of work, as if bells resounding and bouncing off the frozen peaks and valleys of a mountainous range.  And, he had the chutzpah to render a Ghazal in English with the refrain ‘In Malayalam’ through it, an intimate, intense and pleasurable experience with a poet.  Jeet Thayil has awakened us to ‘the jolt, the jive, joie de vivre ‘of writing and reading poetry.

 Finally, it was Ashok Vajpeyi’s turn to delight us with his colorful insights in the arts. He is a cultural creative, and has been involved in an endeavor to bring about a cultural revolution through his studies in poetry, music and the arts. The opening lecture of ‘Why Literature’ illuminated the light of literature which drives away the darkness and is appreciated by those who have inculcated patience and are involved in a voyage to their inner cores. Literature is a half-truth, he said, which gets completed with your truth. His work towards Polish poetry and Indian poets of yore like Kabir and Ghalib, was a comparative study in their lives and works. Poetry of resistance, a bid to bring about change in prevailing norms of rule and life, and the art of reading poetry in different languages equally inspired us and led us down lanes and by-lanes of intersecting voices of poets.

Meeting and attending such lectures, intellectual elegance was excited and life has been gradually exalted, conversation purified and enlarged. Thank you, Goa University and all those who conceived, sustained and brought it about.

 I end this note with words from the book ‘An Equal Music’ –Music, such music and poetry, is a sufficient gift. Why ask for happiness; why hope not to grieve? It is enough, it is to be blessed enough, to live from day to day and to hear such music – not too much, or the soul could not sustain it- from time to time.

Rendezvous with Jeet Thayil

After a long time, I found myself ensconced in the cool environs of the Goa University with a teacher of poetry par excellence. He led a medley of thirty through the literary analyses of lyrical poetry; those beautiful songs of triumph and loss, mingling in clear tonality and ringing with joy of beautiful human speech.  Meet the performance poet, novelist, librettist and musician- Jeet Thayil, whose lyrical lucidity and biographical asides through sessions of reading-aloud-a-poem made us co-creators in the creative process of reading and writing poetry.

What good is poetry that cannot be indulged in, celebrated, danced and sung to?  The engaging experience had us revisit poets like Elizabeth Bishop and her dear friend Robert Lowell who, in his poem Skunk Hour, has laid his affection bare for all to see.  The comical yet woebegone interlude with John Berryman and his famous work The Dream Songs, offering depressing vignettes of Berryman alias Henry, led us intrigued for further explorations. A grim, unrelenting portrait of sing-song rhymed quatrains by Theodore Roethke My Papa’s Waltz left us at once contemplative and awed. Robert Creeley’s I Know a Man introduced us to the Black Mountain coterie of poets who excelled in narrowing the unit of structure in the poem down to what could fit within an utterance. Our encounter with Allen Ginsberg, the poet of the beat generation and his poem The Howl, a template used by many to write their own poems, was inspiring. James Wright and his innovative style of using titles and first and last line to great dramatic effect, was a lesson in writing our own poems. Joan Larkin’s poem Origin gave us a feel of ‘unblinking gaze’ and ruthless clarity on heart-wrenching subjects like child abuse.
The class, which started with American poetry and a reserved audience demeanor confronted with a consummate poet, opened out to a warm interactive interlude with an avalanche of cascading verse from Indian poets. Jeet Thayil, a repertoire of Indian poetry, an outcome of his ambitious endeavor to anthologize Indian poetry from Fulcrum magazine in Boston to Bloodaxe and Penguin editions, brought our way an in-depth resource of a canon.  The forays into the voices of Indian English poets threw in a spate of debates on choice of language, context of reading poems …but Jeet Thayil dissuaded arguments in favour of his mission of eulogizing the feel and form of lyrics in poems. The juxtaposition of  very British stylistic technique of Nissim Ezekiel with his prowess at churning out a poem of limited grammar and the spoken everyday English of the people in the streets, made interesting study.   One great benefit I derived was being introduced to many poets I had never previously read, the lost and obscured poets as Jeet called them, whose beautiful verse is not only relegated to back of beyond but is marked by a complete absence, not a print available anywhere. Jeet Thayil came upon Gopal Honnalgere, Srinivas Rayaprol, Lawrence Bantleman,  G.S. Sharat Chandra in old manuscript copies, a treasure trove of lyrical poetry, which was worth an inclusion in the contemporary anthology of Indian poets. Dom Moraes, Eunice de Souza and Manohar Shetty, poets with a Goan connection, were read enthusiastically.
The experience was akin to turning interminable corners in a maze and coming across yet another poet with a unique charm. The poetry reading parleyed into a poetry workshop for those who write their own poems. Sitting through the sessions, it was indeed remarkable to see the ruthless, but constructive appraisal by Jeet of the amateur attempts by the students ( I was really embarrassed by mine).  His definitive encouraging, truthful and restful approach evoked even the reticent voices to speak and add to the ongoing exchange.

The songs of delight reached a crescendo on the last day, 22^nd August, 2013, when Jeet Thayil performed his poems on stage in a public event. Standing upright nonchalantly, he effortlessly ploughed through his original pieces of work, as if bells resounding and bouncing off the frozen peaks and valleys of a mountainous range.  And, he had the chutzpah to render a Ghazal in English with the refrain ‘In Malayalam’ through it, an intimate, intense and pleasurable experience with a poet.

Jeet Thayil has awakened us to ‘the jolt, the jive, joie de vivre ‘of writing and reading poetry. I end this note with words from the book ‘An Equal Music’ – Poetry, such poetry, is a sufficient gift. Why ask for happiness; why hope not to grieve? It is enough, it is to be blessed enough, to live from day to day and to hear such music – not too much, or the soul could not sustain it- from