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| Poster |
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| 'Kaise sukun paoo tujhe dekhne ke baad' |
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| Enacting my poem 'Origins.' |
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| With TY students. |
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| With faculty of the Department of English. |
-Brian Mendonca
A beautiful morning of poetry unfurled today at Garware college, Pune. It was enabled by my friend and colleague Dr. Leena Chandorkar, Professor and Head of the Department of English here. It was titled, 'Emotions, Poetry, and Creative Writing.
Together with her team, Dr. Leena - who was my MPhil batchmate at the University of Poona - weaved a tapestry of moments which I will remember for a long time to come.
The session had a dazzling opening with 3 students reading 3 of my poems, viz. 'Ten Rupees,' 'The Anointed,' and 'Requiem to a Sal.' Each poem was prefaced by an introduction summing up the essence of the poem.
Dr. Leena introduced me and suggested I open with a song on the guitar. I sang my favourite. 'Help Me Make it Through the Night,' by Joan Baez. The song cued a reflection on how loneliness and the night set the stage for poetry.
The compere bounced the first question 'How do you have the courage to share something as intimate as poetry?' I asked her which lines of mine did she find intimate. Courage comes from conviction. You want to share something because it is true for you.
'You don't see much poetry being published in print nowadays. What are your views?' This is not the end of poetry. Poetry has always published despite its circumstances. That is its hallmark. 'Poetry doesn't sell,' rue the publishers but this is not true. I have travelled across India taking my poems, and they have been welcomed.
When asked what motivated me to publish my poetry I asked the students to guess. I gave them a clue saying it was a 3-sylablled word. Dr. Leena guessed it - RE-JEC-TION.
I dwelt on my poem 'Origins' written in Jhansi. I asked them to write a poem with that title imagining they were in the train to Delhi from Goa. Many wrote and read their poems.
In the packed hall with 4 rows of benches I asked students to my left to face one side (Goa) and students to my right to face the other direction (Delhi). I paced in the centre aisle and read my poem.
It was time for a ghazal. I sang 'Kaise sukun paoo, tujhe dekhne ke baad' and the students hummed along with me.
'When do you know that a poem is finished?' quipped a student. I replied saying that a poem must leave room for ambiguity. You cannot 'finish' a poem. To illustrate that I read my poem 'In Conclusion.' We spoke about belief. Hemmed in by doubt, sometimes it is hard to believe in yourself. I read my poem 'Praxis.'
It is not necessary for a poem to be long to be effective. I asked the students to write 4 lines of verse with the title '9 to 5.'
'You wear many hats. How do you find the time?' asked a student. 'How many hours does a day have?' I countered. It is important to set boundaries, so as to make time for writing.
One may use words from several languages in a poem. Because a thought may find its objective correlative in another language. I mediated the Portuguese poem 'Quando eu morrer' by the poet Sofia Meyer Breyner de Andressen to them. 'What would you want to do if you could return after you die?' I asked.
I read my poem 'Aandhi' from the Sahitya Akademi collection. I also read 'Afternoon' from the SA collection. Write the lines which come to you, no matter how insignificant they may seem to you.
Wrapped in poetry, the session drew to a close with me singing and playing the popular Konkani dulpod 'Undra Mhojea Mama.' (My Uncle Rat) after offering a brief introduction and translation.
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Pic courtesy, Dept. of English, Garware College, Pune. All pix taken on 3 January 2026. Updated 5/1/26.
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