VDPC English Poem Winners(s)

Our judge, Nikita Parik, for the English poems has made her decision. Here is what she has to say.

Can poetry be judged? Who is to say that one person's truth is more important than another's?

The answer is no. Art cannot be judged. One can, however, have preferences based on the technical aspects of creative writing. Is the writing true to its times, linguistically? How has language been handled? You get the drift.

Thank you for all your poems. While reading through these, I could tell how strongly truthful most of these poems were, which is the first and most important rule of any creative endeavour. Please keep writing. Congratulations to the winners.

And here is the winning poem

Everyday Romance

I like to lick the bowl after I have dessert.

I prefer meat with bones so I can chew on them and suck up the marrow when I am done.

Once we sat in fancy restaurants, facing each other like chess players strategising the next

romantic move while I tried to remember the right way to eat soup.

You sent me hothouse roses

The kind I actually don't even like because they have no scent.

They were dark red, like the fitted dress I could only wear because I'd stuffed myself into

shapewear that lifts breasts, and holds in butt and gut. Trapped, mute in candlelight, celebrating a saint neither of us believes in.

Now the jigsaw pieces of ourselves don't fit together as well as they should. But I for one am grateful for the spaces between us where we can breathe easy.

So, let us sit side by side in front of the TV (and not bother watching the news), and eat rice

and dhall with fried fish and chutney and cucumber.

We'll lick our fingers when we are done and maybe share some barfi or vanilla ice cream for dessert.

And tomorrow, and tomorrow and tomorrow we'll do it again in celebration of our everyday

romance.

Sheena Gurbakhash

13th Feb 2023

VDPC Hindi poem Winner

क्योंकि प्रेम है सतत दिनेश अग्रवाल

प्रेम करने की उम्र नहीं होती न कभी गुजरता है प्रेम पत्र के गलने से न मरता है शहंशाह और सल्तनत के नष्ट होने से पत्थरों के ढलने नदियों के जमने से जब एक तिनका भी जंगलों में न बचे आकाश से उल्काएं जब पृथ्वी को जलाने पर हों आमादा सितारे भी टूट कर फिर न बन पाएं तब भी धड़केगा एक दिल और फूटेगा एक कोंपल लहलहाएगा फिर एक जंगल समंदर तब फिर लहकेगा आकाश तारों से महकेगा

क्योंकि प्रेम की कोई मियाद नहीं होती

लड़ चुके हों आखिरी युद्ध भी जमीं और आसमां मिस्त्र, रोम, यूनां, हिंद, चीन के मलवों तले दब मरी हों संस्कृतियां हज़ार बरस यूरेनियम विकिरण के गुंजलक में दबोची धरा घुट मरी हो प्रेम का एक बीज उड़ता हुआ आसमानों से मिट्टी की कोख पा जाए उपजे पौद असीम आह्लादित जाग्रत हों दिशाएं मनु स्वयं मनुष्य के भाल पर तिलक लगाएं

क्योंकि प्रेम की मृत्यु लिख दे ऐसी नियति बनी नहीं।

क्योंकि अंत में सिर्फ प्रेम ही बचता है सभ्यताएँ नष्ट हो जाती हैं बच रहता है जंगल के झुरपुटों में प्रेमरत आदिम मानव

क्योंकि प्रेम है सतत, अनवरत ...

- दिनेश अग्रवाल

Our Hindi/ Urdu judge had this to say

ON JUDGING POETRY

All judgement is subjective, particularly when it comes to evaluating and ranking poetry. So I would merely restrict to what , in my limited opinion, are the attributes of a good poem. These attributes are, effectively, the criteria which I employ in evaluating poetry.

• 1.

Beauty -First and foremost, a good poem must have beauty. “Beautiful” is the most common response on our Whats App group, you will notice. So a beautiful thought, beautifully presented is bound to find favour with any reader. The use of language to create beautiful word pictures is the essence of poetry.

• 2.

Power – A poem must be powerful in the sense that it must have the capacity of stirring emotions of the reader. One should be impacted , one must be moved by it. One should feel happy / sad after reading it. Intensity of emotion must come through. What is being stated is deeply felt.

• 3.

Universality – A poem should have a universal appeal in the sense that it must strike an emotional chord with the reader. It must generate feelings of emotional affinity, arouse thoughts and sensations one has felt in the past, thoughts and sensations once can connect to. We like a poem for its ability to state beautifully and effectively, what we wanted to but couldn’t

• 4.

Musicality – Poems must have a musical quality, achieved through rhyme, rhythm and meter. Think Shakespearian sonnets, think Ramayan chaupais.

So the Hindi poems received for the competition were evaluated using these criteria. After much deliberation and careful consideration I find that in my limited and wholly subjective opinion, the poem “Kyonki prem hai satat” by Dinest Agrawal deserved to be ranked no. 1. The idea that lover is eternal has been beautifully presented in a very effective manner through some really pleasing use of rhyme and meter. Dinesh paints a grand vision and I was particularly struck by how easily he brings in cosmos and nature and cultures and civilisations. Marvellous.

In-person meet at Deer Park

Please join us to share your favorite poems or just listen in. Get some picnic food to share as well! Park near Safdarjung Extension entrance and if you get lost, call at 8860018070.

12 noon on 26 Feb 2023, Sunday.