The second day of the Lahore Literary Festival (LLF) had two sessions on Urdu poetry in which new trends were explored besides having a deep look at the tradition of Urdu prose poems.

In the session on ‘What’s new in Urdu poetry’, fiction writer and critic Nasir Abbas Nayyar explained what was meant by new trends, saying that the newness meant negation of the old. He said modernism in the 20th century proposed that everything should be new in poetry and it included a revolt against tradition.

Nasir connected the concept of newness with capitalism and consumerism which demanded new things and new ideas that were necessary for survival of capitalism as the new things meant removal of old things.

When asked about her poetry, Fatima Mehru, who published her debut poetry collection recently, said emotions in poetry were not based on one aspect of life but there was an element of experience as well.

When asked about her trilingual poetry, Mehru said poetry was never conscious of the medium of language she used for her poems as the medium came with the emotions on its own.

Poet and publisher Hammad Niazi said the person of a poet also mattered in his expression. To him, the newness and individuality started with the creative truth of the poet. “Individuality comes from the moment when you go through a creative process and create art. One man’s truth can’t be true to the other person,” he said and added that he gave more importance to the culture and his nativity.

Shanawar Ishaq was asked about his diction in poetry which was considered a bit difficult. He said poetry needed a balance of three elements: language, thought and emotion.

“Language has a basic role to play in poetry,” he said. If a new poet did not use language in his/her own way, he could not create good poetry.

Referring to Hegel’s concept of thesis, antithesis and synthesis, Shariq Jamal said the poetry was not just synthesis while the poet captured the moments of conflict between thesis and antithesis before reaching the stage of synthesis. He called the same process as newness in poetry. He said the questions about the newness of poetry were not new and they were asked in every era.

In the session on prose poem, Urdu poet Afzal Syed said Jaun Elia in the preface to his first book, Shayad, had rejected the prose poem, however, in an interview published in his book, Farnood, he had changed his opinion and accepted prose poem as poetry. He was hopeful about the future of prose poems.

Talking about the tradition of prose poem, he said it started in France with Baudelaire and others and they were translated into Urdu, the same tradition being followed by poets here.

Referring to his personal experience, Syed said at the start of his writing career in his young age, he realised that he could not find a voice in conventional poems or free verse. He said he just strayed into writing poetry and it was not planned.

About the social conditions of Pakistan of the 1970s which gave birth to Urdu prose poetry, he said it was the most important decade for the country as it was divided into two parts which that generation did not forget, secondly, there was the worst martial law imposed.

Poet Tanvir Anjum said that the basic questions about prose poems were asked only in Lahore and not in Karachi. She said the contrasts were there in many aspects of society but they are accepted. Similarly there can be contrasts and conflicts in poetry.

Talking about her experience, she said Azra Abbas was writing a prose poem when she was a university student while Fatima Hasan was also there.

The session was moderated by Ambreen Salahuddin.

Published in Dawn, March 20th, 2022