“HONEY I SHRUNK THE VERSE" by Nidhi Mehta

                                                                                                                               

                                                                FROM EPIC TO HAIKU

Poets and writers like Homer, Dante Alighieri, John Milton, Vyasa and Valmiki  perhaps used their spare time speculating, perhaps gazing at the stars in wonder or just the brick walls or thatched roofs and at the marvels of nature and an eternity just thinking and aspiring. They wrote long poems, namely epics which still are one of its kind and none dare to follow them in their intricate and immaculate aesthetics. Epics like Iliad, Odyssey, Mahabharata and Aeneid were read by people of those times and are still able to capture the imagination of people young and old.

         Now with incredibly fast paced life and technology, aspiring writers and readers spend much of their time social networking on sites such as facebook or Twitter. Does one ever ‘stand and stare’ at things now-a-days without being considered a weirdo of some kind? Shrinking interests have shrunk the verse too. Micro poetry like haiku, senryu, sapphic,  tanaga, tanka, quincouplet and byte are what one would term the ‘in’ forms of poetry. We can find poets and readers enjoying it in clubs, parties and reading sessions as it saves time, energy and easy to email or text.

         What about the rhythm, rhyme, music, poetic diction and resonance, aspects of poetry which differentiates poetry from other genres? What about the imagery of ‘azure blue sky’ and its comparison to the beloved’s eyes, the free fall of imagination and beauty of saying a thing in umpteen ways. I agree, we may feel compelled at times being short of words or may just not have the patience and resort to one liners .For some they might act as teasers, a brainy thing, simple and much easy way to deliver emotions but the whole process takes away the beauty.

         Poetry is all about emotions, feelings and delivering them in a rythmic form, a form that plays on our senses, so why not let it flow without restricting it with commas, periods, colons or for that matter even words till it merges in the sea of our understanding and appreciation.