World Poetry: India

Happy Poetry Friday!

Thanks for hosting this week's poetry links,
Donna Smith. See you at Mainely Write!

It has taken me a few weeks to recover from process my trip to Italy last month. One month ago today, my two travelling companions and I were arriving in Salerno. We quickly settled into our B and B and set off through the narrow, cobbled streets of the city, to find the other poets.

Salerno's waterfront

Debby Kevin, me, and Ann Bracken
were at the conference
to represent Little Patuxent Review.

Ann, Debby, and I had come to Salerno for the first 100 Thousand Poets for Change World Conference. I've blogged about 100 TPC before, but this was my first time meeting other organizers. There were 80 of us from 21 countries!

When people ask about the trip, I can honestly say that the food was AMAZING, especially in Salerno. Since we were in old city Salerno, which is a port town just south of Amalfi, you can imagine that the sights were incredible. But the most important thing that I carried home with me is the friendships we made with other poets.

For the next few weeks, I am going to feature poets who live and work outside the U.S. or are immigrants to this country. Many of these poets are people I met in Salerno, but a few will be local authors who were born in other countries.

To kick off my World Poetry series, I'd like to welcome poet and journalist Menka Shivdasani, of Mumbai, India. At our first formal poetry reading in Salerno, Menka read an amazing feminist piece, "Hinge." 

Menka Shivdasani's third book of poems is
Safe House: A Poetrywala publication.
She is also the editor of If the Roof Leaks, Let it Leak:
A SPARROW publication (fourth in a series
of five volumes featuring Indian women
writers from 23 languages).

The two of us also had time during the conference to chat about our work in the schools and writing poetry with children. That's what we're going to focus on today.

Welcome, Menka!

Note from Menka Shivdasani

Coordinator, Mumbai, 100 Thousand Poets for Change

The 100 Thousand Poets for Change festival in Mumbai, which takes place over four days at the Kitab Khana bookstore, includes one programme for children every year, which is put together by Mrs. Rati Dady Wadia, former principal of Queen Mary School, and a teacher with more than 50 years' experience. She works with children across Mumbai schools to conduct poetry competitions based on themes of peace and sustainability, in tune with the themes of 100TPC. 

The children then present their poems publicly as part of the programme, in a session that includes music and theatre performances as well. Organisations such as The Writers' Bug have also expressed an interest in participating and some of their children had also shared their poems in 2014. [Check out The Writers' Bug website -- it's adorable!]

Last year, we asked children to write about India as well as about other countries for a session titled 'We are the World'. The titles are chosen in a way that children can relate to immediately, and they did, in fact, sing the popular song as well during the session.

While putting together this concept, I wanted children to start thinking about themselves as people who were proud to be Indian, but who also considered themselves as citizens of the world. The idea -- tenuous though it might seem to some -- was that if children started thinking of themselves as world citizens, they would be more amenable to the idea of peace between countries. 

The 2013 100TPC Music of the Spheres event,
photos courtesy of Menka Shivdasani.

This picture shows an enactment
of Gieve Patel's poem On Killing a Tree.
Watch a video about the poem here.

The first step towards this, in my view, was for them to become familiar with other countries and cultures. The children were free to write about whichever country they wished to, and many of them did some research before writing the poems, adding to their knowledge of other global regions. Some children even came to the presentation wearing costumes that represented the countries they were writing about.

When Mrs Wadia introduced the subject, this is what she said:

"India, the land of many religions and cultures – the land that nurtures so many diverse points of view and welcomes people from all walks of life; we are proud to be Indian but also believe that we are one with the world. Ours is a land that has been known for its tolerance over the centuries, and it is that makes India so special. We must all contribute towards keeping this ethos alive and not allow ulterior motives and political gain to overpower this amazing trait.

In a world that is increasingly getting divisive, we can learn to build bridges and break down walls."

She then brought in the concept of peace between countries, and of how it was important, even as we took pride in being Indian, to ensure that we lived in harmony with the rest of the world.

In the previous year, we had asked the children to write about nature and the environment, and these poems are represented in the book as well. The skit by Katie Bagli, 'The Earth Summit', which was performed by the children last year, brought in this theme too.

Menka and Mrs. Rati Dady Wadia
at Kitab Khana bookstore,
which hosted Mumbai's 100TPC poetry event.

Thank you, Menka, and Mrs. Wadia, for telling us about your poetry celebration. I'm pleased to be able to share a student poem from the book THE MUSIC OF THE SPHERES. Prachi Jain's poem "Rome" had special appeal for me because last month was my first visit to Italy. The poem made me think about the way certain places, especially historic ones, exist as a landscape in our minds -- even if we have not visited them.

ROME

by Prachi Jain

Activity High School, Class 9

What have you achieved if you have wandered earth's band

But never attempted to venture Rome's heavenly land?

The city with vast treasures of history

Which on Earth, indeed remains a mystery.

Nursed by a wolf -- two abandoned twins

Who great and fought to see who wins

Romulous stood over Remus, with pride and valour

And ruled over the land, showing off his glamour.

The picturesque city of Venice,

Where fires are breathed into every furnace

Where water flows from how to home

And gondolas row to every dome.

The Colosseum of Rome, known for its gladiator fights

Which today, is known as the land of lights.

It has an enormous underground circular base

The ruins of which still adorn the place.

So that's all I have got to say about Rome.

After all, I can only dream of it from home.

All I can do is persuade you to visit this scenic land

And while going, take me along, hand in hand.

Anthology of student poems written for 100 TPC

Thanks for visiting, Poetry Friday friends. If you have any questions or feedback for Menka, please leave them in the comments.

Enjoy this photo gallery from Rome. I hope Prachi has a chance to visit this city of wonders some day.

The Colosseum just before sunset.

Griffin doorknob in a Roman church

Modern art on the doors of
Santa Maria degli Angeli

Writerly sculpture at the Vatican museum

"Here there be dragons"
in the Vatican's Map Room

There Are Places I Remember (Kill Your Darlings 6)

Hello, Writerly Friends. Happy Poetry Friday!

Did you read Writer's Almanac this week? Garrison Keillor attributed the phrase "murder your darlings" to British author Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch. I always suspected Quiller-Couch was a Death Eater.

A sketch of Hogwarts Castle from
the Harry Potter Lexicon. Since we can't
have the Poetry Friday Party in a fictional
castle, let's head over to Katya's place,
Write. Sketch. Repeat.

We've been talking about the revision process, how hard it is to cut characters--and even full plot-lines--from a novel-in-progress.

What about setting? Can you imagine the Harry Potter books without Hogwarts? Gone with the Wind without Tara? Peter Rabbit without Mr. McGregor's garden?

Poor Peter has lost his blue jacket.

This week, I'm giving setting the Kill Your Darlings treatment.

If you dream about a house, some say, you are visiting the mansion of your soul. It's easy to become connected to place, because places hit all of our senses. Not just the Big Five: sight, sound smell, taste, and touch. In a setting, we also have thermoception (sense of heat and cold) and equilibrioception (sense of balance, or how we perceive gravity in a place).

Read more about senses beyond the Big Five here. (P.S. This won't be new information for those of you in the Sensory Processing world.)

All these senses working together, filling my brain and body with input -- this is why I love to travel. And it's why I love to visit settings -- or use a setting I'm very familiar with -- when I'm working on a book.

Settings can, however, become literary darlings.

When I began working on my middle grade novel-in-verse, my eldest had just finished fifth grade. During that last year at elementary school, I chaperoned a field trip to Mount Vernon, George Washington's home in Northern Virginia.

Mount Vernon circa 1800.

One thing I remembered about that day: the Washington mansion was filled with tour guides, but there was no one available to answer students' questions at the slave quarters.

The quarters were a sharp contrast to the Washington
mansion, with its giant feather beds.
From Travelblog.org.

This became a plot point in my novel. I sent my fifth grade characters to Mount Vernon. Like me, they were frustrated that they couldn't learn more about the slaves who labored at the Washingtons' plantation.

In the novel, when my characters returned from Mount Vernon, they did some research and learned about the Underground Railroad Experience Trail. This is a real, docent-led hike through the woods of Sandy Spring, Maryland. Experts believe the Quaker families in the area were part of the Underground Railroad network.

Near the end of my book, Miss Hill's fifth grade class planned and took a field trip to the trail, so they could learn more about the history of slavery.

I took my friend Michelle, my kids, her kids, and some extra kids to the trail one spring morning. (The guided hike is free, but you have to make a reservation).

A conductor at the Underground Railroad Experience Trail.

What an excellent program! I let the docent know about my novel. I wrote the experience trail into my book. The poem is in the voice of Norah Hassan, an immigrant from Jerusalem. I thought it was the perfect fit between character, setting, and plot.

Freedom Seeker: The Underground Railroad Experience Trail

By Norah Hassan

On the trail, we had a conductor who helped us escape.

The whole class followed her through a forest

where signs said, To be sold and let Three Slaves.

She called us Freedom Seekers.

My family came here for a better life,

even though we were not slaves.

We did not take much.

One bag of things from home for each person.

On the trail, trackers hid, hunting for slaves.

The conductor said, “You’d rather chance

going in those woods than staying at the plantation.”

I know what it’s like to give up my bed, my neighborhood.

When the conductor said people escaped

to keep their families together, I thought of Jaddi.

He is old. My mother says once he goes home,

he will not leave Jerusalem and visit us again.

On the trail, we pretended to follow the North Star,

moss growing on trees like a compass.

I was behind Katie, hopping across the stream,

pretending to hide our scent from dogs, when she fell.

I have never seen an arm break.

I have never seen the whiteness of bone.

Ashlie said, “That’s disgusting.”

She stepped over Katie as if she were a muddy stone.

Jason, Rennie and I helped Katie to the stream bank.

T. J. called 9-1-1 on his cell phone then found Miss Hill.

I thought, Slaves did not have 9-1-1.

Jason raised his hand and asked the conductor,

“If we really were escaping slaves,

would we have to leave Katie behind?”

I know what it means to leave someone behind.

I have been a freedom seeker.

However, when I overhauled the plot of my novel this summer, I realized both Mount Vernon and the Underground Railroad Experience Trail had to go.

Can I tell you how hard it was to cut a WHOLE SETTING, especially a cool one that people should know about, and where I did a boat load of research and took pages of notes?! It felt like murder most foul, my friends.

Can you imagine Hamlet set anywhere else but Elsinore Castle?
(Said to be based on Kronborg Castle in Denmark.)

This was killing a darling in its truest sense, because including the experience trail in the book had become my personal agenda. The book had different ideas. We were only momentarily at odds with one another, but the needs of the book won. They always do.

I leave you with a cover of the Beatles "In My Life." Have you ever had to cut a setting you loved from a novel? Tell us about it!