Unlike a novel, drama can ‘damag’ your cerebral apparatus in just one hour, and a good poem needs only a few minutes to ‘jeopardise’ your emotional stability. -Anand

Whenever we are lost in the maze of modernity, we turn to the classics for guidance. No doubt, this is the world which has given precedence to prose and fiction over poetry and drama, in the beginning, the Universities would teach only three subjects: Poetry, Philosophy and Oratory, subjects which encompassed all the segments of human life. But, as civilization progressed, the middle classes came into prominence, and with the invention of the printing press and multiple increase in the reading public in 19th century, a huge body of readers came into existence. These people were not interested in the lives of Kings and Queens. Common man, and his problems, came to dominate the literary creation when great authors like Charles Dickens became the literary square meal of the reading public.

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My focus here is on the idea of Poetry including dramatic poetry, which has been pushed into the margins. Major awards today are meant only for fiction. Even the Nobel awards novelists and rarely goes for poets. I wonder why Poetry and Drama have been pushed into the periphery and why fiction has usurped the centre stage, so that, today it is ruling the world of creation and celebration.
In my opinion, Poetry is a genre which has something to do with the Muse and its inspiration. Poetry is the only discipline which cannot be taught in an academy. Much less in colleges or universities, where we teach, not poetry, but about poetry. Teachers who have never written a poem themselves retire teaching the art of poetry for forty years to college students, with the notes they prepared decades back, because what matters is not poetry, but the marks, and then, the job of a lecturer after which the same story is repeated.

Poetry is about creativity which is inspired by Gods. I am reminded of Guru Nanak Dev’s words when he wrote against Babur’s aggression on Punjab: “Jaisi Mai awai Khasam ki Baanij, Taisda kareen biaan ve Lalo”. [I write whatever comes to me from my Master]. Gods cannot dictate untruth or falsity. A Poet speaks the truth without fear. Thus, Poetry has divine roots, and it does not compromise with Truth.
The prose and fiction which are in vogue today are the preserve of the common people. But no work of fiction invokes the Muse. The divinity and truth which characterise Poetry are absent from prose and fiction. We may talk of great novels like War and Peace, Mother, and Les Miserables but can any writing in prose or fiction reach the literary finesse of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, King Lear and Sophocles’ King Oedipus?

The Dangerous Domain: Truth
Giving precedence to fiction over Poetry means we are avoiding those domains where danger lies. Most dangerous thing is Truth. Perhaps we are going for mixed truth which is more affordable. Unlike novel, drama can damage our cerebral apparatus in just one hour, and a good poem needs only a few minutes to ‘jeopardise’ our emotional stability. We shall not be the same after that. Perhaps this was the reason Plato was afraid of the Poet. To write a novel, an author needs years, and to read it, months, and to react? Reaction too is as calculated as the novel. Not the sudden cathartic reaction we find after watching a tragedy or even after reading a great poem like ‘The Deserted Village’ by Oliver Goldsmith.
So, if Plato can throw the Poet out of the Republic, what is strange if Poetry has been exiled from the idea of great writing by the arbiters of Great Literature today? There are some great publishing houses who do not entertain Poetry books. One can understand their commercial compulsions. Poetry which deals with Truth does not sell. From here, we can draw the conclusion that “what finally sells in this market is mixed truth if not entirely Untruth”.

Academia and Creativity
The academic world is research oriented. They are taught to carry out research and write research papers. No University has a chair in Creative Writing particularly in English. The researcher gets a job. That is the sole aim of his life. That is why, creative writers are out of the ambit of Universities. Neither Universities nor Govt. show any kindness towards the Creators of Poetry in particular, who do not easily get publishers because it is all market oriented. But, which University does not teach Poetry? It has teachers who teach the Art of Poetry. They write great scholarly articles on Dante, Milton and T. S. Eliot. That is enough. Poetic Creation cannot be taught in Universities. So, let the critical tribe flourish. However, the teaching of Poetry and Philosophy is out of the ambit of studies. It is not strange, therefore, that the poets who are celebrated and remembered today, were not from the payroll of any University. Scholarship and Creativity are two different domains, which appear to be in conflict.
To conclude, I would only say that there is no dearth of people writing poetry, but there are few who are true creators of poetry. Poetry writing is a culture, which burns, not into the brain, but into the heart of a poet. It is a game of love, and love is blind. A poet would not barter his love for poetry and go for bucks, nor sell half- truths which bring popularity and awards too.

[Dr. Jernail Singh Anand recently won the Seneca Award from Italy. Author of 175 plus books, he won the Charter of Morava (Serbia), Franz Kafka (Germany, Chek Rep. and Ukraine) and Maxim Gorky (Russia) Awards. A Hony. Member of Serbian Writers Association, his name adorns the Poet’s Rock in Serbia.]