Vidya Venkatramani interviews poet and editor Pravat Kumar Padhy, final part 3.
Q5. Recently you were nominated to the jury of the Touchstone Awards. Please tell our readers about these awards. Also, tell us your experience of being on the panel.
A5. I received an e-mail on 24.7.2020 from Bruce H. Feingold, Touchstone Chair, The Haiku Foundation. It came as a surprise to me. I was overwhelmed and felt extremely humbled. I remembered my early poetic journey: writing as a one-liner proverbial expression during school days to publishing poems on Wall Magazine in college career, and subsequently while studying in IIT, publishing many longer and shorter versions of poems in English Newspapers, mainstream poetry journals. I wish to reproduce the excerpt of the invitation letter:
Dear Pravat,
I hope you and your family, friends, and community are safe & well.
I am writing to invite you to join the Touchstone Awards for Individual Poems Pane beginning in January, 2021.
As you might know in 2010 The Haiku Foundation introduced the Touchstone Awards for Individual Poems. The Awards annually recognize noteworthy contributions to English-language haiku. Award-recipients are selected by a panel of poets, editors and scholars.
The Awards panel includes six individuals whose primary qualification is a record of excellence in the field of English-language haiku. In keeping with THF’s desire to inspire synergies with the “mainstream” poetry community, one exception is made for an eminent non-haiku poet whose work demonstrates a kinship with haiku sensibilities. Panelists serve for three years….
Over the five years I’ve been coordinating the Awards, the panelists have expressed that it’s a stimulating, enjoyable experience, both as poets and working together on recognizing excellent haiku. I look forward to your participation!
Best wishes,
Bruce
I gladly accepted the invitation. Probably I am the first Indian to be bestowed with such an honour by The Haiku Foundation. There has been a formal interaction with the esteemed Co-panelists and I enjoy working with them.
Touchstone Haiku Award is one of the prestigious and internationally accomplished honours. The Touchstone Award Series began in 2010 with an aim to recognize excellence and innovation in English language haiku genre. The Touchstone Awards for Individual Poems is given for the noteworthy haiku or senryu published during every calendar year. An individual can nominate two haiku out of which one may be his or her own work. The result of the award is announced in the month of April of the following year. Similarly, the Touchstone Distinguished Books Award is given for the noteworthy contribution of collections published in the calendar year.
Poems and commentaries by the panelists are archived on The Haiku Foundation website.
Q6. Which Japanese and Indian writers /poets have influenced your writing?
A6. I have read haiku by the Masters Matsua Basho ,Yosa Busan , Kobayashi Issa and Mosaoka Shiki including Chiyo-ni , a great women haikuist. I remember, in the words of Bruce Ross, Basho for depth, Buson for craft, Issa for humanity and Shiki for a modern voice.
I have read haiku and its aesthetic essence sketched by many leading poets of different periods. I like haiku by Kuniharu Shimizu associated with his beautiful art and images.
In one of my recent essays on “Haiku: The Shortest Poetic Form and Its Development in India”, I have classified the history of Indian Haiku literature into three periods:
Inception Phase (1900-1950)
Awareness Phase (1950-2000)
Development Phase (2000 onwards)
The classification is broadly based on the initial concept about haiku based on limited information and later followed by more awareness about the genre by the academicians and poets.
I like the natural flavor blended with the basic elements of haiku writings with its simplicity (iki), elegance (miyabi) and poetic beauty. I highly appreciate haiku by Angelee Deodhar, K Ramesh, Rajiv Lather, Kala Ramesh and others for their originality and immense literary values embedded with the enlightened (satori) nature. There are many young poets including brilliant woman poets who have excelled in their creative exploration. I enjoy reading their haiku characterized by aesthetic values, freshness and modernity.
I have the pleasure of reading the classical waka from ‘Manyoshu’, which literally means ‘A Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves or A Collection for Ten Thousand Ages’, probably compiled after AD 759 in the Nara period. It has been a pleasure of reading some tanka of great poets namely Murasaki Shikibu, Akiko Yosano, Takuboku, Chōkū Shaku, Mokichi, Ryokan, Aizu Yaichi and others. I enjoy reading classical waka composed by the Japanese poets in the Heian Period (794-1185).
I rejoice reading beautiful tanka by great tanka poets namely Princess Nukata (possibly 630-690), Princess Oku (661-701), Ōtomo no Sakanoue (700-750), Akazome Emon (956–1041), Ono no Komachi (825– 900), and Izumi Shikibu (970–1030), Akiko Yosano (1878–1942), Kanoko Okamoto (1889–1939), and Fumi Saitō (1909-2002), Fumiko Nakajō (1922–1954), Machi Tawara and others.
Q7. Which Japanese aesthetic principles have guided your writing?
A7. Even the tiniest object of nature has its genuine worth in this world. I feel it is the realisation of this truth and the Zen-moment that has given rise to the essence of haiku writing. It enunciates a contemplation of spiritualism and the realization of being a part of nature. The philosophy of haiku embodies this emotional relationship between human beings and the surrounding in its dynamic state. The poet simply sows the seeds of the image leaving the readers to harvest its musicality and aesthetic values. I try to honour the basic elements (teikei) of haiku: the seasonal reference (kigo), the subtle silence in the form of pause (kireji), Juxtaposition (renso), depth and mystery (yugen), contained space (ma), becomingness (kokora), lightness (karumi),creativeness (zoko), elegance (fuga), simplicity (wabi ) and metaphysical loneliness (sabi).I feel am a part of nature. The tiniest dust has its great worth and this inherent emotion has influenced me a lot.
Q8. You have come out with a book of Tanka recently. What other books have you published earlier?
A8. I published my debut tanka collection, “The Rhyming Rainbow” by Authors Press in 2019. I am grateful to Patricia Prime for writing an elegant Foreword for my collection. The book was reviewed widely including in the journal, Ribbons, Vol.15, No.3, Fall 2019. The review editor, J Zimmerman, comments:
“……I am particularly charmed by Pravat’s delicate juxtapositions: ‘I painted’ contrasts night’s darkness subtly with the patches of white that remains unpainted; “the rainbow” ingeniously sets the arrival of tears against the disappearance of a rainbow and the moisture that had made it visible. … I find much to enjoy in this rich collection that justifies why Pravat’s poems are widely published and have own honourable mentions and commendations.”
Sonam Chhoki writes to me in her e-mail, “…I am struck by the underlying motif of music whether it is the “desert folk song”, voices in the fields, the rise and fall of waves, birdsong or the lullaby of a nursing mother. The German philosopher and poet, Friedrich Schlegel said that to get to the “heart of physics” one must be “initiated into the mysteries of poetry.” This debut collection of tanka by Padhy, a scientist, seems to vindicate this.”
My other publications include Silence of the Seas, Skylark Publication, Aligarh, 1992; The Tiny Pebbles, Cyberwit.Net Press, Allahabad, 2011; Songs of Love- A Celebration, Writers Workshop, Kolkata, 2012, Ripples of Resonance, Authors Press, New Delhi 2017, Cosmic Symphony: A Haiku Collection, Cyberwit.Net Press, Allahabad, 2019, and The Speaking Stone, Authors Press, New Delhi 2020.
I had written poetry of both longer and shorter versions. Essentially the short lyrical poems (micropoetry) of different metrical forms have been composed long back during the nineteen eighties and the collection, “The Tiny Pebbles”, was published in 2011. The manuscript of “Songs of Love”, primarily written during the eighties and early nineties, was preserved as such in my personal folder and later it was published in 2012.
About love poems, Prof. D.Ganasekaran once commented, “P.K.Padhy unveils the curtain of your dream followed by the silence you surrender on seabed near the shore under the roaring tide. Padhy is highly sensuous & his songs of love is a modern ‘Endymion’.
The collection ,”Songs of Love: A celebration” has been critically reviewed. Prof. Bam Dev Sharma , President, Campus of International Languages, Tribhuvan University, Nepal enumerates, “ I read his “Songs of Love: A Celebration” in which he enjoys singing the beauty of nature– human beings. To some extent, I find some poetic complicity between William Blake’s “Songs of Innocence” and “Songs of Experience”.
My latest collection, “The speaking Stone” is reviewed by Namrata, Editor, Kitaab International, Robert Best and others. Eminent author and critic, PCK Prem elucidates in his Foreword:
“….The Speaking Stone is inimitably unusual in treatment….Padhy is thoughtful and genuinely tries to indulge in a dialogue with life and existence all alone without apparent hangover of religious or philosophic moorings though related thoughts stay in the background…..He moves from the realities of life to the metaphysical questions and somewhere, he feels human beings ought to make science and technology work more for the wellbeing of humanity with a positive approach and gives hints of Auguste Comte’s thoughts……”
Q9. One of your free-verse poems has been included in the University Curriculum. Can you share this with our readers?
A9. The poem, “How Beautiful” was published in 9.7.1983 in the leading English Newspaper, The Indian Express. I was delighted when one of my friends informed me about this. My poems have been published in many journals and newspapers including The Times of India. The poem, “How Beautiful…” is included amongst the other articles by the notable literary luminaries namely Rabindranath Tagore, E F Schumacher, Martin Luther King, Sundaram, and Iftikhar Husain Rizvi as a part of the Undergraduate English curriculum, 2018 of the prestigious Shivaji University, Kolhapur, Maharashtra. Prof. G D Ingale comments, “P K Padhy’s style of writing brought him international recognisation. His poetry is experimental and known for simplicity of expression and its presentation. Romantic expression is another characteristic of his poetry. In the poem, ‘How Beautiful…, in addition to these features, his inclination towards spiritual and metaphysical dimension of life could also be seen. The poem presents the poet’s idea of a perfect world.”
Recently this poem is featured in Charlotte Digregorio’s Writer’s Blog.
HOW BEAUTIFUL ….
If birds could talk
Trees could walk with us
Flowers could express their cause of smile
Spring could speak its desire
And meaning of songs to the rocks
Waves could stop for a while so that
We could have some words with them.
Silence could spell out its
Aim of being a saint
Past could return and
Open its petals afresh
Graveyard could wake up
After the sunrise
And chat with us.
Publication Credit: The Indian Express, 9th July 1983.
Q10. Could you share a haiku/tanka that you feel closely defines your life or is your favourite one?
A10. I have written a lot of haiku and tanka. It becomes difficult to choose one. I may like to take a little liberty to cite a couple of them.
I was thrilled when I got an e-mail from Werner Reichhold on 23rd Sept 2009 about acceptance of my haiku poem for publication in Lynx-Aha Poetry, XXV:1 Feb 2010.
Dog is misspelled
the child discovered
the Great
(Original poem, “God” first published in “World Poetry Anthology”, 1992)
The followings are some of my favourites:
flowing river–
the bereaved girl holds
a palm-full of water
Editor’s Choice (Sample Poem), Acorn, Issue #33, Fall 2014
relationship–
the cold breeze remains
tightly folded
Akisame, Issue 19:1 December 2015, The European Haiku Society, Italy.
thick clouds–
a gap takes me
to the ocean
Modern Haiku, Issue 46:2, 2015
early morning–
the sweeper gathers
autumn wind
Presence, Issue 49, 2014
temple bell–
the lone bird adds
its cry
Frogpond, 36-2 Spring/Summer Issue, 2013 Anthology: A Vast Sky, 2015
gene splicing
I rearrange flowers
of the garland
The Heron’s Nest, Vol. XVIII, No.3: September 2016
tiny pebbles
the softness
of her talk
Runners Up, Iafor Vladimir Devide Haiku Award, 2017
The following tanka has been included in the Special Feature, Atlas Poetica. I tried to highlight the Indian philosophy and spiritualism.
the temple steps
lead to the corner end…
with Ardhanarishvara
the devotees divinely sense
the softness of the stony carvings
Special Feature on “Yin, Yang, and Beyond: Short Poems of Sex and Gender in the 21st Century”, Atlas Poetica.org, October 2015 (Ed.Tokido Kizenzen)
(The name Ardhanarishvara means ‘the Lord whose half is a woman’. Ardhanarishvara, created by the merging of Lord Shiva and his wife Parvati.)
The following tanka is special to me.
wave after wave
on an incessant journey
another sunset
when I long to change the taste
of salt, the colour of the wind
Skylark, 2:2 Winter Issue 2014, One Man’s Maple Moon, 2017
Commenting on the above tanka, Nicholas Klacsanzky enumerates:
“I think the two most important words in this tanka that trigger poetic symbolism and concepts are “journey” and “sunset.” A journey in this context could be one’s life, or a spiritual ascension. “Sunset” could be referencing an end of a period of time in one’s life…”
Analyzing the zen-feeling, Lucia Fontana synthesises:
“The feeling I’m overwhelmed with when reading this poem is a sort of breathlessness, with which the author seems to be trying to deal with……. It’s a poem about a humble human being, absorbed by the pressing and routine of time (incessant journey…. another sunset….) and the wish to feel free from material perception, which can lead to a more spiritual condition… Impermanence here is the red thread that runs through the tanka: of the beauty of nature, of human perceptions. I do feel all the tension to be more than a soul slave of the perceptions of its body, so a wish to go beyond flesh and bones and find peace of mind, an inner thoughtless shining silence.”
Figuring out the sense of hardship, Hifsa Ashraf opines:
“I feel that this tanka is about a hardship that a person is passing through. “Wave after wave” means shifting from one painful event to another, which seem like trials…… Both salt and wind are quite significant in spirituality, as both significantly influence the mood and behavior of a person….. .”
I always feel mankind to dwell in peace and in oneness here on the earth and beyond.
celestial journey
to far-off Red Planet
I sketch mankind
under the robotic tree
the earth in blue and white
The Signature Haiku, Senryu and Tanka Anthology, 2020 (Ed. Robert Spiess)
I feel humbled for my tanka, ‘I mingle’ featured in the “Kudo Resource Guide”, University of California, Berkeley. The tanka published in Atlas Poetica: Special Feature on ‘I will be Home , Spring 2016 (Ed. Liam Wilkinson) is my favourite one. The poem has been put on rendition (music by José Jesús de Azevedo Souza) in the Musical Drama Performance, ‘Coming Home’, The International Opera Through Art Songs, Toronto, Canada.
full moon
peeps through the roof
the street dweller
tightly holds the thread
of hope against wild thunder
Q11. Where do you draw inspiration for your haiku? Any interesting anecdotes /stories or behind –the-scene -episodes of your haiku?
My poetry largely dwells on the essence of human experience, nature and logical credence.
A11. In the volume, edited by Atma Ram on “Interviews with Indian Writing in English”, 1992, I said, “My inner urge comes near to the wounds of human beings, to the natural wonders of nature, to the wombs of reality…….” I candidly expressed, “Poems come to my mind as fragrance to flower. Anything I see, it creates a symbolic frame in my mind……… when I see a small grain of seed, I feel it is tiny / because it nests with care / the mightiest in it.” The beautiful nature, the mysterious celestial dance, tiny grass to gigantic tree, the spectrum of a living organism, the silence of the desert, loneliness of parting, vastness of the sky, the softness of snow, the burden of grief and sufferings, tender smiles of the kids, glorious womanhood, etc. influence my poetry. I feel I am not a poet, I am a medium to transcreate the treasure of the grains of sand and silence of the shells.
The acceptance emails from editor Werner Reichhold from Lynx, Alice Frampton from The Heron’s Nest thrilled me in the formative stage of my writing. Initial publication of haiku in The Mainichi Daily, one-liner (monoku) in Frogpond, Modern Haiku, Presence and in the Red Moon Anthology are some of the memorable moments I cherish. Display of my haiku in the exhibition “Haiku Wall”, Historic Liberty Theatre Gallery in Bend, Oregon, USA, IAFOR Vladimir Devide Haiku Award, Honourable Mention in Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival Haiku Invitational are some of the moments I rejoice.
Q12. Can you share some tips and advice for those of us who are starting our haiku journeys?
A12. Understanding the basics, harvesting knowledge through reading and practicing are some of the important things of learning any art. One needs to be honest in sailing through the pristine river of literature and acknowledge the gifts by the Masters.
The art of haiku writing is a way of imaging nature (kocho-fuei), behavioural sense of man, animal, non-living entities, and exploring the human feeling and relationship. Haiku is unique in its form and it is simplistic expression with reference to season or nature entwined with human aspects. I feel it is the joy of assimilation and emotional expression. Indeed Bruce Ross says, “The greatness in haiku is the revelation of reality just as it is in all its wonder and freedom.” The zen-feeling (ethical goodness) of Buddhist lineage has given rise to the genesis of the haiku poem. I coined the word, ‘Haikuism’ synonymous with the ecstasy of Zen-feeling for rejuvenating the doctrine of oneness and universalism.
Less telling is more in haiku writing. The poem needs to spread fragrance for the readers to explore the flower. It needs to muse for the readers to discover the melody of the song…… It should have literary values in its simplicity, clarity and content. Art of juxtaposition, freshness, interlacing nature with human aspects are some of the cornerstones of the art of haiku writing. The two images in haiku should not reflect the simple cause and effect rather it should tend to unfold the layers of sublime meaning associated with it. One can put ‘dash’ or ‘dots’ (ellipsis) to separate the two distinct images. Sometimes, as opined by Jane Reichhold, the middle line (pivot line of a haiku) reflects multilayered interpretations by joining with Line 1 and also with Line 3.
Life is a poem, music is its journey. Poetry is written by itself. Poet is just a medium like ink. The essence of poetry nestles in the diligent fragrance of the flower, simplicity of flow of the river, the gentle spread of leaves, the calmness of the ocean and the embellishment of soothing shadow. I urge the younger generation to explore the aroma of joy and happiness through poetry. Explore the meaning of the ambience in its simplicity and paint the image with words. Let us observe the aspects of nature and correlate them literally with the human aspects (joy, grief, humour, emotion etc) by the art of juxtaposition. At the end, let the haiku create a sense of silence and substance in the reader’s mind. The poet needs to facilitate the reader to visualize the journey of growth of a beautiful tree out of the brevity of the seed of haiku. Let the reader explore the layered meanings culminating into an epiphany of the sublime feeling. I quote George Steiner’s line: “When the word of the poet ceases, a great light begins.”
The simple swinging of hands and twisting of fingers cannot create the perfection of dance performance. There need to be graceful postures, a poignant space in between and selfless manifestation for the audience to share the divine nectar. Hence a mere wordplay or mere expression in a prosaic form won’t reflect the essence of haiku. There has to be a soul, freshness and honesty in it to radiate its brightness. This is the lighthouse of haiku spirit. W Hackett says, ‘Lifefulness, not beauty, is the real quality of haiku’.
“A haiku lets things become what they are”, Robert Spiess says. The image created through haiku in its brevity (kakakoto) is undoubtedly is the spark of self-realization. Nineteenth-century Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca says “a haiku is a momentary burst of inspiration, the blush of all that is truly alive… the trembling of the moment and then a long silence.” The poetic sincerity (fuga no makota) ripples the serene silence and it is the keystone of haiku writing.
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