A platform for poets of twin cities

Poetry is stereotyped as a dying art but the truth remains that it is more alive than ever. Poetry slams are a regular part of almost all schools and colleges and poetry blogs are springing up rapidly, churning out poems after poems. The rest of the poets who stub the myths of the “dying art” are members of the Secunderabad Poetry Club.

The club is run by Rajesh Kumar, an excellent poet himself and an HR consultant by profession. It has a membership of 157 poets from across the twin cities. They hold ‘meet-ups’ once every month and the contents of the meetings are strictly restricted to poetry alone. Of course, the free coffee and samosas act as incentives to participate, but poetry is the object and sole interest in the club.

The club starts off with the introduction of the new member (if there is one) and then moves on to two rounds of poetry recitals. The club usually consists of two rounds of recitals. The poems recited are usually the brainchild of the members but works of favourite poets are always welcome so that the rest of the club can enjoy and appreciate it.

The best part about the club is that it provides an audience who are seriously interested in listening. This keeps the poets going as they weave magic with words. “The oohs and aahs that I heard as I recited my poem for the first time in front of the club was gratifying,” said a new member of the club.

Ramakrishnan, another member of the club, feels jubilant when he is surrounded by listeners. “These meet-ups are a place where you forget who you are. It doesn’t matter who you are because you just want to listen to and recite poetry. It is very satisfying, delightful, and refreshing!” he feels.

“For any kind of poetry, exclusivity, silence and audience is required and we maintain this atmosphere in the club,” said the organiser Rajesh. The club started in 2013 with just three people and Rajesh thought the concept might not take off. “After the first meet up, we couldn’t meet almost for a year-and-a-half because I was travelling.

Gradually more people started joining the group and emails started pouring in enquiring whether we ever meet up. Then I knew that it was time to get pull up our socks. By this time, we had around 60 people in the club.” Rajesh describes the poetry club as Indian cuisine, with every kind of spice there is. In the club, all poets are equal and connected through poetry. Any poetry in any language is welcome.

One of the members Gireesh is the only Telugu poet of the club who idolises Sri Sri. “His words are like bullets which pierce your heart deeply,” opines Gireesh. The club has members from abroad too who tune in on Skype each time the club meets and participates in it just like another person in the room. Anyone can join the club through the meet-up app that is very user friendly.

When asked about criticisms, Rajesh says that after each round, the poets open themselves to judgement for five minutes. “But critics are easy to find and poets are hard to find,” said Rajesh, indicating where the focus of the club lies. Rajesh and the gang are excited about the future of the club.

One of the things to look forward to is the publishing of an anthology of poems written by all the active members of the club. Nivedita, owner of Nivasini Publishers and a member of the club, hopes to make this dream a possibility.