6th December 2015, Sunday
Eminent poet Pervin Saket presented the journey of a poet and the coming together of internal and external landscapes, with words providing snapshots of rough terrains and open seas. It was an adequate behind-the-scenes look at the workings of a poet, as she delved into memories, shared photographs and anecdotes, read from the masters, introduced her muse, displayed working drafts, and took questions on form, style, substance and more.
“Poetry is like a window that opens up the outside world”, said Pervin Saket as she ruffled through the pages of a book in her hand. An enchanting presence on the stage, Pervin’s smile and enthusiasm breathed poetry.
Pervin said her introduction to poetry happened in school. “It was enriching to read Shakespeare, Sarojini and Shelly back then. This inspired me to know what the was criteria that made a poet”, she said. “I studied about them and discovered that all these poets had unique and distinct approaches to their writing. There was only one common thing – they all were dead”. Not having a keen interest in nature poetry as a child, Pervin said structures and moods were what fascinated her the most. “In the journey as a poet, usage of words add a lot to the tone and mood of the poem”, she said. “The meaning formed is not just by the words used, but the manner in which we place the order too”, she added. She recited a poem which she had written for Veils, Halos and Shackles, which took the audience by awe- the tone and the meaning of the poem changed completely when it was read backwards.
She recited a few poems from her collection ‘A Tinge of turmeric’, which she said was very personal to her. She ended her recitation with ‘Panchali studies odd numbers’.
Pervin Saket is the author of a collection of poems ‘A Tinge of Turmeric’, (Writers Workshop, India) and of a novel, ‘Urmila’ (Jaico, India). She was shortlisted for the Random House India ‘Writers Bloc’ Award 2013 and poetry has been featured in ‘Kritya’, ‘Platform’, ‘The Binnacle’ (University of Maine, USA) and others. Her short fiction has appeared in ‘Journeys’ (Sampad, UK) ‘Breaking the Bow – Speculative Fiction Inspired by the Ramayana’, (Zubaan, India) ‘The Asian Writer Collection’ (Dahlia, UK), ‘Aliens’ (Prime Books, USA), ‘Earthen Lamp Journal’, ‘Khabar’, ‘Love Across Borders – An Anthology by Indian and Pakistani Writers’, ‘Page Forty Seven’ and others.
As she explained stanzas from a variety of poems she’d written and published, one could almost see the magic of the written word coming to life. She later judged a competitive open-mic performance.
