Poetry Beyond Labels

Vandana Kumar, a New Delhi–based multiple award-winning author and poet, has steadily carved a distinctive space in contemporary Indian poetry. A French teacher, translator, and passionate cinephile, Kumar’s creative world draws from diverse artistic influences ranging from classical music to cinema and visual arts. Her celebrated poetry collection ‘Mannequin Of Our Times’ has garnered international recognition and has now been translated into Greek, with a French translation scheduled for release soon. Shiv Sethi had a tête-à-tête with the author. Excerpts…

Mannequin of Our Times has now been translated into Greek. A French translation is soon to be released. Your poetry is in over 150 websites and anthologies -is this a childhood dream coming true?

On the contrary my childhood fantasies and ambitions never included being an author -poet. It was only after my father’s death in 2014 that I actually started to write about anything and everything within me and around me. The poetry was perhaps always there, unnoticed and it needed that incident or event to bring it all out. Since my childhood I have been into everything that one can call art – enjoyed classical music, appreciated paintings and the poetry of cinema.

What is good poetry according to you?

At one level one can say poetry is very personal and subjective -so the definitions of good and bad poetry differ according to taste and what people consider good poetry. Sometimes poems are heavy on the message aspect but light on aesthetics yet they earn lot of praise simply because they tick the right boxes of all that is in fashion and the current flavour of the day -a lot of writing on nostalgia of our childhood days for example.   Good poetry, at a basic level is poetry that does something to the reader by the end of it, irrespective of who has written it. A poem is a complete story, a complete painting and a complete film in itself. The completeness might also be in it being open ended or seeking introspection.

You write articles for cinema too? What is the connection between poetry and cinema?

It is not for nothing that good cinema is called poetic. There is poetry in everything – in silent cinema, in its dialogues and the visual. Both written poetry and a scene from a film, for example, rely on imagery to evoke something within us. A metaphor in poetry works as a visual symbol in film.

Will you label yourself as a feminist poet? 

I don’t respond to labels -labels slot us in a sense and for me as an artist it is difficult to breathe with a label. To label is to confine and define through a particular lens. Naturally as for most of us -patriarchal mindsets, gender inequality, racism, environmental issues are things that disturb us and so they come into my poetry every now and then. I can’t write on things just to tick boxes. Messages do come in, but organically when they have to. I live many existences and my poetry is also a result of who I am and all the layering and complexities that go along with my personalities – I am a feminist but not just a feminist -I am many more things and unconsciously many identities that I take along with me. I inhabit many selves and my poetry is the dialogue between my various selves. So, while social issues naturally surface in my work. I do not write to fulfil ideological positions. Instead, my art seeks truth, beauty, and resonance, which sometimes align with feminist concerns, but are never limited to them.

Is there any recurring theme in your poetry? What is the subject or issue that reoccurs in your poetry, directly or indirectly?

Well, that is for readers to discover -my poetry on the surface is about anything that catches my fancy -I write about city life, love, longing, death, seasons, journeys, women, the social media and its hypocrisy. The overall arc is always loneliness- urban life and the impact of globalization over the last couple of decades is a recurring theme – primarily its resultant alienation.  I have written about coping with the information and disinformation around us as well as on topics of environmental concerns. Another area where I have penned my thoughts is the sexual behaviour in cities and how romances are impacted with global distances and yet a strange surreal sort of intimacy because of cyber proximity. Other themes are weather – passing clouds or droughts. I occasionally write humorous poetry too – which sort of is a reflection on our middle-class lives today and social media in particular.