Even as litterateurs and publishers deliberate on the future of poetry and what direction it must take, yet another edition of Poetry with Prakriti that has carved a new space for poets and poetry, began in the city with readings by three women poets — Manasi Subramanian, Tishani Doshi and Uma Devi.
Manasi Subramanian, who works in publishing opened the evening with her poem that won the contest held by Prakriti Foundation in the last edition of the festival. While Manasi’s words didn’t lack craft her recital left much to be desired. In all fairness, she did begin by saying she was shy. For the sake of the well-behaved audience that was seated in the open at Mutha Venkata Subbarao Hall’s entrance, braving mosquitoes the author could have put in a wee bit more effort. Manasi began with the poem that won her the prize, Clean-up and followed it with its sequel titled Scarface .
Next was firebrand Tamil poet Uma Devi, who works on women’s issues, Dalit feminism and Buddhism. Hailing from Thiruvannamalai and having published her works in a book titled Thisaigalai Parugiyaval with Panikkudam Pathippagam, she read two of her works that dealt with the politics of a woman’s body, Nature and more. Tishani Doshi charmed the audience with her poem Homecoming that she wrote following the tsunami. She enjoyed reciting her works, not once having to look at the words, as they came tumbling out, slowly, with pauses at places where the audience needed to ponder. Tishani also read a poem called the Art of Losing , inspired by Elizabeth Bishop’s One Art and another one inspired by Pablo Neruda’s I Am Tired Of Being A Man . Tishani’s response to the Chilean genius is titled I Am Tired Of Being A Woman . She ended the session with Love Poem . It was followed by LOL (Lots of Love) “a performance about love, wanting and connectedness in an electronic age”.
