FB errupts over a Poet and a poem

It’s been like a volcanic eruption with outburst directed at full throttle. I was not able to get head or tail what was going wrong until I went through a post by my FB friend Zakir. I came to know that the outpour was caused by a mere post on poetry by Sri Nilim Kumar, the noted or controversial Assamese Poet.

In a way, I felt happy that we have still some serious and enthusiastic followers of Assamese Poetry .  We were in Engineering College (92-96)  when Sri Kumar first started writing poems with unfamiliar themes. I remember Sadin (Weekly Magazine) publishing my article on contemporary Assamese Poetry where I wrote for gracious use of symbolism in modern poetry. While I was suave on Sri Kumar, Ismail Hossein’s article was head on and hard hitting.

If my memory doesn't fail me, Bireswar Barua, in an article in an issue of Asam Bani in 1996, compared Nilim Kumar to the American Beat generation. Those who are not familiar with the Beat generation of American Poetry, It was a group of Poets who became extremely popular post World War-II. The generation rode of publicity rage with their work on obscure sexism and bisexual themes.  

I still can’t accept few of the Nilim Kumar’s Poems as decent and digestible. Certainly some Gupta's inner garments has nothing to do to create unprecedented trouble  if it doesn't get dry. (One of the controversial poems of Nilim Kumar). But when he says expressing oneself is not poetry, I am not  totally averse to what he says. Rather, I would like to reshape his words to fit to my belief as- expressing oneself in the form of poetry may not always translate to good poetry.

Of late, we have a large pool of poets and their works hardly measure up to the expectation of the serious readers. To  a reader, bad Poetry is much worse than a bad novel  or a short story.

To me, there is a thin line that distinguishes good poetry from the bad one. First and foremost, it must be simple and vibrate the inner chord of the reader. Simplicity here doesn’t mean staleness. But reading and understanding poetry require some intellect to crack the outer hard shell which the poet creates purposefully to elevate the joy of the reader while relishing on the softer core.

The important matter is expressing oneself gives the divine high to the author and helps relive the relentless creative pain.  So why to worry what Mr. Nilim Kumar thinks about your poem. Let the words flow unhindered.

Coming back to Beat Generation, Sri Nilim Kumar should remember that some people like me still spontaneously quote  few lines from T S Elliot , the harbinger of modernism into English Poetry,  inspite of being unconventional at his time while   Allen Ginsberg,  from the Beat generation, rests peacefully in Google search.

You can contact Kamaljit at kamaljitmedhi1975@gmail.com