Mangalore, July 14: “Greatest works of poetry are published by poets themselves,” said Mumbai based poet and novelist Jerry Pinto at third – James and Shobha Mendonca Endowment Lecture on Poetry – 2014, organised by Kavita Trust at SDM PG Centre for Management Studies Saturday July 12.
Delivering his lecture, he said, “Self-publishing poetry books is the primary feature of Indian poetry. This is due to the lack of readers interested in reading poetry and publishing houses not ready to publish poems. Majority of the poets tend to engage in other occupations for their livelihood. The general idea is that poetry does not help poet to make money, rather the poet tends to lose money holds true. However, the fact should not be forgotten that poetry is the primal literature and all other art forms emerged out of poetry.”
“Poetry is not the white noise of humanity, but it makes one human. Poetry begins the process of humanity. Poem emerges out of a need and an urge to write. It is the compilation of those few thoughts that retain in the mind of the poet and take the form of words,” he mentioned.
Expressing concern over the lack of reading habit among the younger generation, the poet said that the role of poetry and literature in the society keeps changing. Responsibility has shifted from poets to the journalists. He noted that, reading habits are changing and social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter are posing a challenge to the poetry. “With this trend, the life span of books is only 250 years from now expectedly,” concluded Jerry Pinto.
