By Synthia Tashfi
Edited by Harith Syafiee
As I ponder over what I can contribute for this year’s World Poetry Day, a day that is meant to be a celebration of the art form of poetry, its craft and the way it signifies voices that are waiting to be heard, I think of my own voice. A lost voice, once very earnest and vulnerable, now falters at the thought of writing something new. How did I, a lover of words, become so afraid to use them now?
I think of the theme to 2024’s World Poetry Day: “Standing on the Shoulders of Giants.” It’s a theme that is meant to acknowledge past poets who have revolutionised the craft and made their mark on the world through poetic expression. A fitting theme; what’s better than to learn from those that came before us?
Predictably, William Shakespeare comes to mind when it first comes to literature. An English poet whose style of sonnets that we study even to this day, showed us the power of immortalising oneself through words. His works live on just as the beauty of his muse in Sonnet 18.
Sylvia Plath, a contemporary favourite of mine, contributed significantly to the genre of confessional poetry in the United States. Her poems shed light on themes of female rage and mental health, taboo topics of the time. Her writing showed us how we can find strength in our vulnerability.
We can also look at legendary Asian poets. There was Rumi, a 13th-century Persian poet and an iconic figure in the Islamic literary world; his poetry influenced not only Persian but Turkish, Urdu and Bengali literature. There was Rabindranath Tagore, a Bengali literary icon who authored two national anthems and was the first Asian to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. These honorary literary figures showed us how the portrayal of their spiritual and cultural roots transcended boundaries.
All in all, these poets can teach us in drawing inspiration from our roots, being vulnerable in our writings and channelling them through the power of words. For poetry is not mere words, but is a manifestation of what is within us. As I reflect on my own first attempts at poetry, I recall in the low moments of my life, I was scribbling out stanzas that somehow rhymed with my distress. It felt like I was having a conversation with my pain, attending to my wounds gently, line by line. Perhaps my lost voice, I realise now, can be regained by going back to those roots of vulnerability. Only then can I realise the power within my words.
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