Comfort of words

Ten poets brought their inner worlds alive as Urban Solace celebrated the 50th reading of Tuesdays With the Bard recently

November 07, 2011 06:55 pm | Updated 06:55 pm IST

HEAR THEM As they play with ideas Photo: Murali Kumar K.

HEAR THEM As they play with ideas Photo: Murali Kumar K.

It was a mellow evening at Urban Solace where 10 poets shared their inner worlds through their poetry. They were ten of the 50 poets over the past 50 “Tuesdays with the Bard”, a regular event at Café Urban Solace near Ulsoor Lake.

Dominic Franks opened the act with his suave, rhythmic rendering of all the reasons why he is “Tired of Being a Tightrope Belly Dancer” in life. Priyadarshini's more intense slightly caustic “Sleep World”, “A Complicated Equation” and “The Last Wave” of parting followed.

There were more intense poems like Amritha's cathartic “Awakening” or K.V.K. Murthy's historical poems from the perspective of the one who defeated Tipu Sultan in battle and of the discovery of Judas's gospel. There were also love poems, whose presence were justified by their poets, among whom were both believers and sceptics.

Movie time

Vijay Karthik's “green-eyed mountain girl” and “Coffee Shop Romance” seemed quite appealingly filmi with lines like, “It's so hot between us, let's break the ice”. His poem on magic mushrooms in a hill station was reflective of his youth, the age of experimentation (“There'll be magic in the woods if you look under the right cloud”).

In between, there were acts by some other featured poets like Pramod, whose “Perceptions”, had some touching lines about how past lovers perceive each other a while after their relationship.

There were some poems on life lessons as well, like Nishanth's moving “Catacylism”, where each stanza ends with “Have you lived today?”

The evening would not have been complete without goofy poems like Amulya Shruti's “Baggage” that spoke very beautifully about a woman's relationship with her handbag and the vital role it plays in her life, though it's hardly noticed.

Only a woman could have written lines like “Each bag is a variety of secrets”, “A dab of heady perfume to punctuate her honour”, and “Each day she loses something to the great blackness inside.”

Her other poem “If I were a boy”, spoke of all the things (usually relating to hygiene) that she would do if she were boy, that boys normally don't (kissing better, for instance). Her pretty, witty lines were applauded quite enthusiastically.

The line-up also included a Hindi poet, Deevas, who spoke of being a poet in the typical Urdu poet style. His poem on dreams sounded like one had stepped into a ghazal.

“When we started, we wanted to provide a space for creative self-expression,” said Perry who owns Urban Solace. “Through all these months, I've met the most amazing poets who were as young as 16 or as old as 82.

“The way in which a poet comes to us is amazing it's almost a miracle. The best part about reading poetry live is that the audience can physically and metaphorically touch and feel the poet. Very few poets who come here are published and we'd like to step in and support budding poets.”

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