Poetry as Therapy: Praxis and Paradigms of Pandemic Poetry in Recent Indian English Poetry
Abstract
Poetry has the power of healing and it could be therapeutic like music. Words, pictures and images, convey stimulus to senses sublimating our feelings, thoughts and emotions by evoking positive feelings. The term poetry therapy encompasses integrated wellbeing of individuals, families by inducing positivity through written or spoken words. This paper seeks to present the therapeutic features of poetry, its praxis and shifting paradigms especially through pandemic poetry, which was created with various shades of emotions covering a wide range of aspects born out of unprecedented corona phenomenon. Among a large number of issues addressed by the poets all over the world, this paper is confined to major trends in recent Indian English poetry, its therapeutic significance and thematic exploration in terms of societal problems, forced lockdown, alienation, problems of migrant workers, impact on environment, spiritual longing and healing power. This paper strives to underline the human resilience and hope in the face of suffering, fear, isolation and claustrophobia that follow as people are forced into a quarantine., and social distancing.This paper attempts to combine study of theoretical and conceptual contexts of pandemic poetry with analysis of its various dimensions and possible trajectories.
Keywords: therapeutic, praxis, paradigms, healing, claustrophobia, trajectories
Poetry therapy is a term widely used in modern psychology as a diagnostic and therapeutic tool. The very healing power of poetry has been an inherent quality of poetry since time immemorial. Rigvedic verses, suktas and chants enshrined the holistic healing of the world: by ensconcing rivers, forests and earth, living and non-living beings. In recitation of these verses sounds played a significant role in healing the reciters as well as the listeners. However, the interplay of words, sounds and meaning, elicits the desired emotions from reciters and listeners. Poetry as therapy is a process of purgation, refinement and healing. The school of Dhavani in Sanskrit poetics, acknowledges deeper or implicit meaning evoking feelings or emotions among the readers as primary condition to poetry.
On the contrary, words and expressed meaning were regarded as external appearance. PV Kane succinctly sums up the function of poetry in terms of healing and enlightenment:
“Poetry came to be regarded as having a double purpose viz. giving the highest delight and also contributing towards a higher mode of conduct and character in a subtle and persuasive way.” (PV Kane, 2015, 390-91). Poetry gives aesthetic pleasure, releasing the pent up emotions, which further have therapeutic effect.
The creation of a poem or reading is an outlet through cathartic release of emotion. Poetry’s healing qualities have been documented during both world wars and American civil war. Poems were read to the soldiers to help them cope with traumatic experiences and brutalization of war. The term poetry therapy is an umbrella term consisting; writing or listening a poem, interactive use of literature, bibliotherapy, therapeutic writings and journal therapy. The whole gamut of writers, poets, journal keepers, health care professionals, non-governmental organisations, healing professionals acknowledge and practice healing power of poetry. Powers of words and language are central to poetic therapy. Barbara Trainin Blank holds that writing of poems, involves reflective process, reviewing experiences. She further elaborates:
“The poet can address questions, narrate and analyse experiences with the care of auto-ethnography, seeks patterns or connection of ideas, and make interpretations of lived experiences.
The poets can write theorising about human situation.” (Blank, 1-2). Nicholas Mazza in his book, Poetry Therapy, Theory and Practice, prescribes three poetry therapy practice models. First, the receptive/ prescriptive component, involving the introduction of literature in to practice. Second, the expressive/ creative / component involving the use of client writing in practice. And third, the symbolic/ ceremonial component involving the use of metaphors, rituals, and story -telling. (Nicholas Mazza, 1917, 35-37).
All these components, Mazza further argues have potentials to address the cognitive, affective and behavioural domains of human experience. The history of poetry therapy dates back to the Roman Physician, Sonanus who prescribed tragedy to his maniac patients and comedy to his depressed patients. Barbara Thainin Blank mentions him as the first poetry therapist on record (Blank, 1 . web: http://www.socialworker.com).
Confessional poetry is therapeutic in a sense, it helps to release pent up emotions. Confessional poems of Sylvia Plath, Lowell, Nissim Ezeckiel and Kamla Das help the readers empathising with the poets. J.Leedy in his book “Poetry as Healer ’’ holds that plagues of mental problems and suicides now, parts of literary history were addressed by Confessional poets became a palliative measure for poetry therapy.(Leedy, 1985,33). The perception of the poets, reflected through words, metaphors, symbols, images of a poem have profound therapeutic effects. Like music, poetry too serves as stress reliever by deflecting our focus from objects of stress to the serenity of music. Speaking on healing use of poetry, Leedy writes, how poetry can touch mind to mind and break down isolation, illuminate chaotic feelings, safety valve for tortured emotions. Modern psychology used reading of poems as a technique to cure patients by reinforcing a sense of identity among the listeners with poetic landscapes and sensuousness. Such identifications forge a temporary bond between the poetic world and the real world, what Coleridge calls ‘willing suspension of disbelief- that constitutes faith’ (Coleridge, Biographia Literaria, London, 1958, 6 rprt.). A brief critical survey of literature on poetry therapy may help us to analyse the various modes, functions and domains of its healing qualities, relating the praxis and paradigms to this paper for critical evaluation. Wakeman defines poetry therapy in medical parlance as a treatment intended to relieve or heal a disorder. Wakeman argues with examples how writing poetry could be therapeutic. He proceeds exemplifying the very act of thinking, conceiving and compressing an idea in a language with rhythm and form as healing in itself. He further extends this therapeutic power of poetry to social, ethical and spiritual quests of human beings caught into different adverse circumstances. Interestingly enough he continues, as to how, reading or listening of poems could be refreshing and healing. To quote him: “Rereading poems brings experiences flooding back (as in the Spirit of The Swan), reminding of moments of beauty, of pleasure and pain, recalling significant events, refreshing the soul. The poem can freeze experience and make it available for later thought, meditation, and for some readers, thanks giving and praise’’. (Wakeman, Poetry as Research and Therapy, 2015, 57). Nicholas Mazza, in his books; Poetry Therapy Interface of Arts and Psychology (1999) and Poetry Therapy: Theory and Practice, Routledge, 2017), addresses the therapeutic aspects of poetry and its clinical use. He explains how use of metaphor, narrative, story- telling, bibliotherapy and related arts, based on clinical theory and Romantic philosophy can create a unified poetry therapy. Diana Hedges in her book, ‘Poetry, Therapy and Emotional Life’, (CRC Press, 2017) explores the thoughts of poets, therapists, clinicians, health workers and counsellors in relation to the human condition with a practical component on, how poetry can be used, in therapeutic work. Focussing on theories of Freud, Jung, Rogers and Ellis, the book interrogates the subjects of human motivation, experience and neurosis. She examines the relationship between poetry and psychological ideas. These areas seek to illuminate the human conditions, explain and illuminate issues such as love and loss, spirituality and transitions in life. The Healing Founntain: Poetry Therapy for Life’s Journey, (edited by Geri Giebel Chavis and Lila Lizabeth Weisberger North Star Press. St. Cloud, 2003).
They maintain that poetry has a rejuvenating effect on the readers. Our senses work on many levels serving as vehicles of enlightenment and healing. These writers enunciate their theories by citing poems clinically validated by their therapeutic efficacy.
In most of such cases praxis outweighs the theory. The feedback received from therapists, is applied to theories, to innovate new techniques and praxis. The personal and emotional history of clients need to be co- related with the clinical result. Outside the purview of clinical cases, poetry in day to day life has healing power by awakening our senses to an image, a word picture, idea, metaphor and rhythm in a poem. These elements forge an emotional co-relation between the reader and the poem. They derive pleasure from these vignettes of life leading to enlightenment and healing. The principle of psychology at work, is the same that is derived from seeing a rose and that of deformed creature. A poem replete with positive vibes may relieve the reader from negativities and depression. A poem painting the beautiful scenes of Nature may evoke aesthetic pleasure, spiritual sense of serenity by uplifting the readers from the mundane worries. Here we are closer to functional meaning of therapeutic quality of poetry. Robert Carroll, an eminent writer and therapist argues how words and voices in poems conjoin to create a healing effect: “Poetry gives us ways to talk about it .My job as a poetry therapist is to use poetry and voice to help people get access to the wisdom they already have but cannot experience because they cannot find the words in ordinary language.’’ (Robert Carroll, web: eCAM, 2/2, 2005, 161). Poetry therapy continues to be a growing field with significant body of literature, a fact which may be corroborated with growing popularity of poetry recitations, online video-poetry recitations, and poems on various themes of pandemic on social media or online literary magazines and journals. In Corona induced lockdown creative expressions got experimental through many literary genres, particularly poetry. This created a significant body of pandemic poetry, which served as cathartic channels for release of emotional slags deposited by isolation, alienation, ennui and internal conflicts. Poetry in this context served two-pronged function; involving the poets, who suffered and created, and the readers, who identified their emotions with the poets. Both underwent through a process of purgation, cleansing their emotional slags through catharsis. This further resulted in creating positivity, sense of inner peace empowering poets as well as readers to overcome fear, insecurity and loneliness with rational and moral justifications. Words act as intuitive voice of the poet transforming the thought process of the readers where reader’s or listener’s consciousness merges with that of the poet. Thus healing and empowering him. Kiriti Sengupta, a dental surgeon and poet sees healing as process of empowerment, as aptly revealed in his these words:
“Can poetry heal us? Of course, it does. The importance of healing and the power of the spirit can never be hyped or ignored, for it is as integral to our living as breathing. In times of crisis, one may approach the issue(s) in more than one way: we can demand remedial measures, or we can opt for a therapeutic course that will alleviate our sufferings.” (Kiriti Sengupta, et.al edited. 2020, v). In the same book Sengupta argues that ‘empowerment precedes healing’ (Kirti Sengupta, et.al, 2020,i). Healing precedes empowerment or empowerment precedes healing is debatable. To me either proposition is true depending on its context. In poetry therapy empowerment follows healing. An aggrieved heart with soothing words, is first healed up, through the emotional semblance of a poem and its readers or listeners. Then it strengthens the inner mind or heart of the reader or listener. Quite the contrary, in medical surgery an affected organ or body part is operated or removed, if required through transplantation thus empowering the organ or body part first, which is followed by subsequent healing. A current extreme situation like Corona Pandemic, and poetry written in Indian English addressing the issues of poetry therapy could be analysed to map out praxis and paradigms. The Corona Pandemic gripped whole world in its deadly claws, raising many issues about different aspects of human existence. The consequences of pandemic could be seen not only as a threat to human life but far reaching areas of life, which necessitate and determine human existence in this global world. It has also triggered imagination of social, economic and political thinkers inter alia policy makers, strategists, military and diplomats envisaging a post-covid-19 world order. Besides these areas of negotiations, a larger picture emerges, which is humanitarian spectrum highlighting philanthropic works of those, who are economically empowered and willing to pay their obligations to the society but it also tends to expose, in the same breath, those who remained indifferent to the plight of people. This paper attempts to discuss the emerging praxis and paradigms in the context of poets in recent Indian English poetry, addressing socio-economic, humanitarian environmental and spiritual aspects of pandemic phenomenon. It further seeks to show how poetry as a therapeutic tool can heal and empower.
Pandemic brought in its wake ostracisation euphemistically described as social distancing.
It was not possible for socially energised and globally expanding world for all reasons to shrink so suddenly. There were violations of norms knowingly or unknowingly resulting in a large number of cases of infections and deaths all over the world. Forced lockdown all over world became as much a necessity as compulsion to evade the threat of Covid-19. Complete lockdown affected the social, cultural, economic and religious fabrics of individuals and communities. There were paradigm shifts in all walks of life. Sanjeev Sethi captures this unprecedented and testing time tersely in these words:
“Instructions are stalled /in our core: there is no toggle to turn,/Happiness is a wallet /I left at lover’s vault/ …His omnipotence ./ He erases the offensive,’’(Hibiscus, 2020, 142).
Socialising was replaced by isolation, religious congregations at shrines were substituted by meditation and intuitive healing prayers at home, and gymming was replaced by yoga.
This depicts the rich emotions of poets as therapists, painting empty cityscapes, streets and figures in isolation. Pandemic poetry expressed pity, outrage, serious and seamy sides of life in multiple voices and poetic forms .At the same time, it tickles our curiosity, inspires awe and pulls strings of our heart. Poetry has influenced our stories, permeated our culture and given us an outlet for repressive emotions. The tradition of expressing resentment through songs, poems, music have continued as a historical thread through the life history of people and their culture.
Covid-19 pandemic poetry created beauty, rhythm and harmony as a source of healing from within an environment discordant with human nature. Pandemic poems act as artistic relief for the poets to express their authentic take on the world. Corona pandemic poetry addresses a large number of thematic subjects pertaining to social, economic, ecological, religious, spiritual and psychological issues. Besides beauty, resilience, pain, identity and humanitarian concerns are just some of the general themes used to articulate pandemic experiences. Human resistance and a brave face to this pandemic with a hope for its annihilation has been a recurring theme. Ambika Ananth’s “Soon…Very Soon’ celebrates this dauntless human spirit with a prophetic voice:
“The Corona ghost, with its diabolical dance/ Stomping vehemently on human beings/ Will be exorcised and extinguished soon/ To become nothing but/ A dark page in the annals of history’’ (Giti Tyagi, ed. 2020, 406).
In this context, anthologies, journals and magazines (print and online) address those questions with full answers, which this pandemic posed to every human soul. These poems paint emotions of people in multiple colors arising out of this unprecedented situation. These poems create a world of longing and living energised with hope, love and instincts for survival.
Behind the closed doors, great poetry of pandemic was created all over the world in different languages, healing and empowering visibly shaken minds from fear of infection and death.
On the one hand, there is a quest for individuality, identity, peace and harmony. On the other, there is an urge for spirituality; annihilation of pain, prayers for normalcy. Spirituality in everyday life is a ritual of healing, where words in a poem act as mantra. Two anthologies prominently discussed in this paper, each featuring more than hundred poets from India and abroad, consist of poems, covering a wide range of themes on various aspects of covid-19 pandemic. They chronicle the tribulations and trials with vision of life. These anthologies are by title Hibiscus, poems that heal and empower (Edited. Kiriti Sengupta, et.al, Kolkata, 2020) and Beyond Corona: The Silver Lining, An Anthology of Poems, Articles, Fiction (Edited by Giti Tyagi, A publication of Muse India, Hyderabad, 2020)’.These poems fall under distinct categories of societal, economic, ecological and spiritual trajectories of pandemic. They also explore the cultural and humanitarian sides of this trying time from the moral and philosophical perspective. All these poems resonate with this time of Corona pandemic. Dustin Pickering, a poet and writer rightly points out “Poetry is a healing art. As the Coronavirus continues to take lives, our mission as poets and artists is to think, to heal, and to dream.” (Hibiscus, 2020, x). Poets, and their poems have therapeutic effects but they also see beyond the existing reality by reflecting on human constraints, woes and conditions. They appeal to our senses, emotions, aspirations and dreams thus soothing our wounds and healing them. The wounds opened by this unprecedented time, don’t only find voices in poetry but a therapeutic care too.
Societal and cultural aspects of corona pandemic find voices of the poets, depicting their active engagement with interpersonal relationship, isolation, emotional outbursts of the aggrieved people. Many poets depict quarantining, isolation induced by social distancing, and their consequent impact on social, cultural and emotional lives of the people. There was paradigm shift in the societal domains; from shaking hands, hugging and patting to greetings with folded hands ‘Namaste’, from congregation to limited gathering on weddings, ceremonies and death, from conferences, seminars to web-conferences, webi- nars, official meetings were replaced by Zoom, Goggle, and Jio meets, pushing down external world to digital world. These paradigms found expressions in haikus poignantly using satire, irony and humour. Neera Kashyap’s poem ‘Family Distances’ artistically captures the nuanced effect of social distancing in these words “Distance is indifference. Distance is hostility-“.She holds the sense of togetherness and family as magical healing power: “When family heals Earth heals. Distance may heal.’’(Hibiscus, 2020, 117).
Social distancing can cause physical separation but not soul to soul communion. Barnali Sikder’s ‘’Hopefully Yours’’ dives deeper into the necessity for change in human nature and society. To quote her: “Testing time is asking for change, / Change in our behaviour, / Change in our life styles, / Change for the greater change/ In our society…’’ (Beyond Corona: The Silver Lining.2020, 668-71).
Reflecting on isolating impact of lockdown and shrinking social world to home and family,
Meena S in her poem “The Spirit to Conquer- Ahimsa-”, sees the social distancing as a code of choice or compulsion:
“The countries go for a lockdown/ Absolute isolation keeping off/
From the roads, from the sky/ Living at home, becomes a code of choice/
Could be one of the compulsions too.” (Beyond Corona: The Silver Lining, 2020, 1081).
The voice of the poet here resonates with shared consciousness of the people caught up in lockdown, which helps them to locate themselves with the rest of the world. Mona Das in her prose poem “The people Are Inside’’ presents a comprehensive picture of the world docked and locked from within. She details this unusual phenomenon with a sense of loss and grief: “And they had to go back to their homes, stay inside …shut their doors. They had to be told not to touch each other, friends or strangers, they had to be told to distance, build space, go back to their own selves, and there, once inside, once truly inside, only then, a dreaming, an awakening into a new future.” (Hibiscus, 2020, 108). Eid is a festival of joy; offering community prayers, hugging, meeting people, greeting friends and relatives by visiting their homes. A distinct shift in delineation of this festival can be seen in a poem titled “A Gazal For Ramazan “by Nadeem Raj, who recalls with mixed feelings of pain and nostalgia “Childhood reminiscences muted this year…No Eidi for children or salaams for elders/ Just duas to be safe and to survive this year.’’(Hibiscus, 2020, 115).This is a pointer to restrictions on many more festivals and ceremonies this year celebrated by different communities in India to evade the community spread. Corona time forced people to change or restrict their customs, traditions and rituals. We here encounter a poetic world with different landscapes, emotional buoyancy, sets of imagery and metaphors, painting the world we inhabit. The poets awaken us to these changes accepting or rejecting the new normal in place of old normal. They also heal and empower. Prasenjit Dasgupta in his haiku titled ‘Vachaspati’, very succinctly puts the healing power of poetry.
“Words have tranquillity/ Blind verses crawl down my memory /
I rise, I awoke, I breathe’’ (Hibiscus, 2020, 129).
Social dimensions of Covid-19 outbreak and responses of the poets to the challenges of time, its impact on human life raise a number of questions related to social equality and justice.
The sense of equality and social justice echo in a poem “Unity in Diversity’’ by Ravathi Raj Iyer:
“With no discrimination as to race, / Caste and status/To test our strength, weakening spirit and courage/To challenge our very existence/ Strange are the ways of the Universe telling us –we are equals.” (Beyond Corona: The Silver Lining, 2020, 1337-1340).
Some of the emerging paradigms of pandemic inspired poetry, touch upon themes of old age care, rejuvenation of the institution of family as a cohesive umbrella and significance of home. A healthy social relationship depends on a healthy relationship between ageing and young generation. During the complete lockdown, we have stories of old mothers being driven out by their families and stories of love and care for old aged parents. Bharti Mirchandani’s poem “Caring For An Aged Mother’’ expresses love, care and gratitude to an old mother “ After I get really mad at Ma…Love rises from my feet up/ Pushes my diaphragm to my heart / I hug her and kiss her/Like she’s a child’s soft toy./And she smiles/Her happiness is contagious.” (Hibiscus, 2020, 41). Barnali Ray Shukla’s “A Home in Our Prayers’’ is a poem about social communication which seeks to establish the sanctity and integrity of home. In these words she revisits the post-colonial theory of concept of home:
“Emotions airbrushed with grammar, / …conscience that sways between what was meant and what was said-/ Maybe you could leave on a /magic carpet or walk barefoot, / or we grow homes just where we are, / across miles, in our prayers’’. (Hibiscus, 2020, 37).
Another social dimension of pandemic poetry is woes of estranged lovers, loved ones caught into lockdown or quarantined lovers in hospitals. Chandra Shekhar Dubey’s “Separated Lovers’’ lucidly captures the pangs of separation and helplessness:
“Somewhere in a dark corner/an estranged lover waits wailing, / for her quarantined lover sick for home/ Her pangs of separation sprout/ into sounds of pain in agony/ Mixing the sounds with silence/ of night in asymmetrical rhymes/She sings stringing her woes /into mopes of a dying night / It is no dream, / but laments of a grievous heart.’’(Muse India, YS, July 2020, 1).
Social dimensions of pandemic poetry explore the dynamics of social relationship, emotional conflicts, strengthening of familial bond, home as a source of emotional security and constraints borne out of lockdown. They focus on Indian ethos and values to celebrate the concept of family and home as a strong social institution. They weave praxis of poetry therapy into paradigms of social relations for all practical purposes.
Economic dimensions were more alarming and hazardous, arising out of complete lockdown in particular and pandemic in general. Railways, Air services, travel and tourism industry, transport services, hotels and restaurants, building construction companies, small scale industries, religious shrines were worst hit by pandemic rendering millions of people jobless. Poets also presented these issues with humanitarian perspectives in their works resulting in flood of pandemic poetry.The worst victims of shutdown of economic units were migrant workers. They were forced to walk down their home towns, thousands of miles unnoticed and unacknowledged. The migrant workers’ plight, their dehumanised conditions caught into the vortex of lockdown and uncertainties witnessed the worst scenario of this century, as they walked thousands of miles carrying burdens of their shattered dreams and hope for safety and security even in the face of adversities. The problem of migrant workers formed significant themes in pandemic poetry in terms of theme, form and style. Dushyant Krishana Kaul in his article “India’s Lockdown – A Nightmare for the Poor, An Affront to Human Dignity’’ writes: “Immediately after announcement, thousands of migrant workers rushed to their villages, thereby festering the lockdown imbroglio. They had to reach their villages to avail the benefits. Since most states sealed their borders, they were stranded in cities with no means of survival. Worse, the police brutally assaulted those who tried to reach their villages’’. (Kaul, Madras Courier, April 1, 2020, 30).
The pathetic scene of marching of migrant labours, was captured by many poets in many languages raising a question of governmental apathy, humanitarian concerns and sufferings. “The Road’’ by Sreedhar is a poem which runs between two worlds of migrant workers, world of work and world of their homes. The last line of the poem is remarkable as it draws the circle full: “One step at a time. Home is where you live, not for materialistic gain but inner peace despite penury and pestilences’. (Sreedhar Vinnakota, Madras Courier, May 23, 2020).
Chandra Shekhar Dubey’s ‘Grand Spectacle’’ (Setu International, Pittsburgh, July 2020), “I Walk’’ (Literary Yard, May 30, 2020), ‘’Migrant Labours’’ (Muse India, YS, June 2020), delineate pains, fears, and sense of insecurity of the migrant workers.
These lines with vivid imagery capture the voices of migrant workers on move: “We were painting our great spectacle of endless march/To distant lands like migratory birds in search of their sky. / We were walking barefooted with pangs of hunger and burdens of broken dreams like clouds in dark firmament. / …Here, we go stranded, faceless, nameless/On highways, railway tracks, streets for life or death?’’. (Setu, ed. Sunil Sharma ; June 2020).
Chandra Shekhar Dubey in his poem “I Walk’’ created a monologue of a migrant walker who is fraught with fear of uncertainties but his nostalgia for home holds a hope for him.
“I smell fragrance of corns and ripe watermelons in fields/ Filling strength in my stray steps./ Neither my dream nor my lost place/ Pricks my naked soles on the road/ I walk to walk over my past/ in land of my memories and dreams./ In those stories of my granny / Beyond the worries of the world/ that lies behind. (Literary Yard, May 30, 2020, https://literaryyard.com).
The change in attitude of migrant workers to the cities of their work, an imaginary home land and longing for their original home suggests a shift in their sense of being and belonging. This also marks a shift in the urban demography and inter-state diasporic consciousness.
Priyadarshi Patnaik’s poem “The Tale of Migrant Worker’’ captures the voices of migrant workers on road, it also tells about their pains and humiliations:
“There was nothing but pain since the last night’s chase/ Losing our ways without food, / and carrying only taunts and abuses.’’(Beyond Corona: The Silver Lining, 2020.pp1193)
Amidst the pandemic when people were shrinking and snivelling behind the closed doors, there were people who risked their lives to serve the aggrieved humanity, which displayed tremendous sense of duty and social service. They were essential commodity providers, doctors, police, journalists, social volunteers and army personnel. Pandemic poetry also delineated their selfless services and dauntless spirit. Claudine Nash’s “Essential Work’’ metaphorically captures the collective wisdom of the essential workers:
“I’m trying to heal/ the healers who rush/ to mend the night while/ you are soothing the wind / by whispering cradle songs/ to the storm…the masses are lifting the waves that /overwhelm the shore.’’(Hibiscus, 2020, 51).
The problem of migrant workers have been presented from existential humanitarian perspective by the poets. They evoke pity and awe peeping into their helplessness, dehumanised state and penury. Reverse migration opened restorative path or homecoming.
This sense of homecoming resonated with post- colonial theory of migration in their poems, redefining the concept of home and a home away from home. Undoubtedly, at the roots of retrogressive migration lied the corona induced economic crisis.
Ecological concerns of the pandemic from all over the world, are quite exhilarating and encouraging, which the poets perceived as silver lining. It provided a stage and space for Nature to heal it. Water, air, rivers, forests, oceans all got relatively purified. Birds, animals, insects appeared on the roads striking a balance in the ecosystem. Peacocks, flamingos, deers and leopards were seen roaming freely on lonely highways and roads. Many recalled these perceptive changes as return to nature. This magnanimous spirit of Nature was beautifully captured by poets and writers in romantic spirit. Anu Majumdar one of the editors of Hibiscus, writes in her introductory note: “Earth was taking us all to court, questioning us with its beauty: the quality of our air. The evidence in our breath, our life, our ambitions, our death, our faith. How we heal all of this is the justice that will empower the world.” (Hibiscus, 2020, vii).
Many environmentalists feel that this pandemic outbreak is result of our unbalanced relationship with nature .Man’s indiscriminate behaviour towards nature is responsible for many diseases spread by animals and insects. Avril Meallem beautifully captures this lapse on our parts in “Gratitude to the Corona’’: “The virus sneaked in/Spread along all the filaments of darkness we had spun’’. (Beyond Corona: The Silver Lining, 2020, 594).
In pandemic poetry most of the poets look at nature as source of healing, there is also an urge for return to nature for ecological balance. Anju Makhija in her poem “A Covid Tale’’ presents two snapshots of Mumbai that of the past and the present. The changes between these two phases are delight to heart, soul- healing and empowering:
“Once, in time of the deadly virus, / humans disappeared from Mumbai,/animals appeared out of nowhere! / The puffed up peacock danced, / the la-di-da hornbill claimed his kingdom. /flamingos spread like cherry blossoms…’’ (Hibiscus, 2020, 33)
Jagari Mukherjee’s “Empowerment’’ sees nature as source of healing an empowerment. Drawing vivid imagery from nature she seeks empowerment through healing presence of nature: “Each morning, caterpillars eat / mulberry leaves, aspiring/ to become butterflies. / I see a bottle green butterfly /playing freely/ amongst orange roses. /…the moon forbids me/ to cry over/ my last man.’’ (Hibiscus, 2020, 68).
“Revival” by Neelan Dadhwal perceives the silver lining in the dark clouds of pandemic. To her Corona time is time for healing of the earth “the dusk/clearer of my inhibitions, /the earth is healing’’ (Hibiscus, 2020, 116).
A Wordsworthian appeal for return to nature resonates in Shernaz Wadia’s “Nature Our Teacher’’. To Wadia nature is cathartic and empowering: “We need to be solemn, sobering responsibility/towards the vague future of a metamorphosing world/ Can we return to nature? / At least turn to it/while we battle an invisible, till now unconquered force? / Nature’s cathartic beauty will help us retain our sanity’’ (Hibiscus, 2020, 151)
Besides, nature being perceived as teacher, giver, benefactor and healer many poets see the silver lining in corona time, hailing nature in the spirit of a benefactor. Komal Sharma in her poem “Nature Has Given Opportunity’’ writes:
“It is nature’s mercy up on us all/ Providing a window/ In the name of Corona/ To board again.’’(Beyond Corona: The Silver Lining, 2020, 995).
Puravi Bhattacharya’s “Recess’’ seeks a poetic communion between nature and inner wilderness. To her Corona is a recess, an opportunity to forge a relationship with the spirit of nature. Images of birds, sky, woods, leaves, brooks and seas paint the majestic splendour of nature, inspiring the muse:
“It has been good so far this recess; / We hold on to healthy hope while/ the humming birds wiz by’’. (Beyond Corona: The Silver Lining, 2020, 1237).
Nidhi Sharma (Phoneix) “In Times of Quarantine’’ perceives corona as result man’s dangerous attitude to nature and abuse of nature: “Many a crisis has been life’s legacy; / Survival of the fittest is not a new theory./ Silent time in quarantine will allow seeing/Nature’s sobs and mankind’s legacy’’. (Beyond Corona: The Silver Lining, 2020, 1145).
Cherime Sangama in “Letter to Humanity’’ raises her ecological concerns for preservation of Nature. She feels if humanity is to be saved from this troubled time, we must respect the laws of nature and its resources. There is a hope for better world in the company of nature.
“…Our grand world with green grass and clear sky/And tall mountains, deserts and valley/ All threatened to be core completely clean/…Hope endures;/ Darkness will never conquer light; / We will forge our faith in the gut of anguish”. (Beyond Corona: The Silver Lining, 2020, 738/ 752).
The poets are conscientious souls of the society inducing a dream, inspiring the masses and awakening them to tormenting time as well as healing grace. Like many ecocritical thinkers poets too, sees the struggles and threats of corona time, getting erupted due to capitalist economies and globalization. Gopal Lahiri in his poem “Corona” express the magnitude of corona threat through the nature, the consciousness of the poet gets reflected on visible traces of nature.
“The shadows of its trees unforgettable memories/ the sky bleeds in grief, knocking on the doors/ …Early morning birds tweet hymns of bright yellow and orange/ Sunrays witness the longing in moist eyes leading into dark.” (Aara Mithilee ML ed. 2020, 25-26).
Most of these poems locate the praxis of ecocriticism showing a natural bond between human beings and nature. These poems transcend the materialistic instincts for aesthetic and spiritual unity. Ecopoesis where poets engage imaginatively with nonhuman forms of nature such as earth, forest, rivers, sea also occupy a significant place in pandemic poetry. These poems celebrate association of human beings with nature. The eco-feminist principle of nature as feminine goddess echo in all these poems. Swarnalatha Rangarajan points out as held by spiritual feminists: “The notion of Goddess as a powerful symbol of divinity in nature that will aid the shift in consciousness from the atomistic self to an ecological self’.( Rangarajan, 2018,121). Nature thrills with it wilderness, enormity and magnanimity, it heals with its beauty and splendour.
Philosophical and spiritual dimension of pandemic poetry found expressions in spiritual longings, through anthems, prayers and songs. The most remarkable characteristics of such poetry- are positivity, hope, healing and empowerment. Prayers and chants are two-edged weapons, empowering physical as well as internal selves of the people. The philosophical and spiritual urges lent time to get connected with inner mind and soul. Pandemic poetry ushered into philosophical realm, negotiating with inner self for peace. This was a time for self-interrogation, realisation, opening tapped human consciousness. All poets see these silver linings behind the pandemic clouds, which obviously put people to ordeal with hope that this too shall pass. Sat Paul Goyal questions in “Soon the Hour will Come’’ the uncertainity, and expresses faith in divine justice for restoring the lost time: “How long shall we pass these dark nights? / These are the questions/ …Soon the Hour will come/ To celebrate, sing and dance/ Till then hold on tight”. (Beyond Corona: The Silver Lining, 2020, 1407)
In the same poem he appeals for developing an intuitive interaction with nature and divinity:
“Tell your wandering heart to listen/ To the silence’s symphony / with the stars and moon above creating a magic of stillness/ To wait for the hour to come/ and we shall overcome.’’ (Beyond Corona: The Silver Lining, 2020, 1416).
Srilkala Ganapathy’s “Sensible Use of the Gift of Time’’ shows, how this time registered paradigms shift from outer world to inner space, a time to connect with supreme being.
“To connect with our inner self/ To develop intimacy with the creator/ The supreme power, / To surrender and trust/ During these extremely testing times/ …To alleviate pain and sufferings caused by corona global pandemic’’. (Beyond Corona: The Silver Lining, 2020, 1460). Rumpa Das believes there is providence in the outbreak of corona. Her poem “In His Will, We shall Surrender’’ redeems faith in God, expressing hope for better world: “There lies a brighter tomorrow, and that is God’s own norm,/ …God plans lovelier dawn- happy, golden, bright.’’ (Hibiscus, 2020, pp138). Hasmukh A Mehta in “March Ahead ’’ seeks spiritual healing through his unflinching faith: “Diseases can’t go very far /They only make us pass through / All kinds of anguish and pain/Still our faith remains’’ (Beyond Corona: The Silver Lining, 2020, 862-67). Faith in the order of divinity by kindling a spiritual connection with divine being, which can create inner peace and equanimity of mind empowering us spiritually, believes Giti Tyagi in her poem “This Too Shall Pass’’. “Manifest the force/Divine deep within,/ Cast a light with alacrity filled/ Exuberant, enlightened/ soul thus hails, / ‘This too Shall Pass’- the eternal truth prevails.’’ (Beyond Corona: The Silver Lining, 2020, 829).
Atreya Sarma U’s philosophical poem “Let’s Defang the Covid Demon’’ raises moral and spiritual doubts about the very nature of corona and its hostility with the humanity relegating it to‘anti-Nature greed of man…Or from fierce reaction /of the enraged Nature’. (Beyond Corona: The Silver Lining, 2020, 540).
The sense of helplessness and uncertainity induced by Corona finds an expression in surrender of self to the almighty for physical and spiritual healing. Chandra Shekhar Dubey’s “Healing Prayer’’ seeks healing through divine intervention:
“O’ solitude of eternity, lord of all things/ Heal my sphinx like riddles of pain/ With your healing showers of light/ Ignite the spiritual flames bright within me’’. (Hibiscus, 2020, 49). The underlying tone of pandemic poetry lies in its philosophical inquiries, metaphysical questions, healing and empowering afflicted souls. The human frailties, despair and physical limitations have been woven into paradigms of pandemic spiritual poems, to connect human mortal state to divine consciousness. The therapeutic effect of spiritualism lies in collective consciousness of human beings which places God as ultimate benefactor and healer.
Pandemic poetry documents this testing time in all its immensity, pervasiveness and grievous state with variety, colours and richness. It chronicles the pain, sufferings, alienation and restlessness of the masses to escape from the deadly claws of a microbe. It also creates a space for introspection, self-realisation redefining the existing principles of life and nature. Socio-economic, cultural, ecological, philosophical and spiritual dimensions of Covid-19 phenomenon, have been artistically delineated by the poets, to give a comprehensive history of this time. These poems celebrate the diversities of urban spaces and revisit the flora, fauna and geographical characteristics of urban life. Though these poems lack the spectacular grandeur of wilderness in urban space, but these negotiate the threats, fears and emptiness unleased by the virus with various aspects of life. While painting these enormities of such testing time with discernible notes of emotions; pity, fear, terror, compassion all poets strike a positive note, seeing silver lines, to save the humanity from the pestilences. All these poems, even those which express apocalyptic vision, fill the wound, heal the laceration and empower. They have a therapeutic effect. These poets favoured the sublime, supreme, environmental, human- built dimensions of the corona infected palpable world.
Their intense engagement with the complexity of situations triggered their sensibility to seek therapeutic relief of poetry, by poetry and for poetry, registering a shift in praxis and paradigms of Indian English poetry. Thus the paper attempted to combine theoretical and conceptual context of pandemic poetry with its analysis of various dimensions and possible trajectories.
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Dr. Chandra Shekhar Dubey, Associate Professor, SBSEC, University of Delhi. chandrashekhardu99@gmail.com