Left alone, our mind can produce hundreds of thoughts. Where do our thoughts come from? It is not always intentional.
A scenery, at times a fragrance and other times a colour, a flower or voice can all bring us thoughts and memories.
But the beauty of a poem is that it can take us to our own personal space. The poet chooses the words and creates the setting but leaves us to our imagination to visualize accordingly.
Poets are an amazing group of people. They are sensitive, imaginative and of course creative.
They give us, the readers, moments to be mindful and go through the emotions they prescribe us – from happiness, to love to sadness and joy.
They record history too. At times they are major contribution to oral history.
Recently I came across the Poetry and Literary Group (PLG), global forum of International poets, writers and artists and realised how wonderfully they transformed the trying days of the pandemic to days of creativity. Poets need quiet moments and time; they had plenty of that during the period.
There are many writers – while some hesitate to share their poems and works of words, others enjoy not just publishing but narrating as well and some excel in both.
Today writing poetry is also considered as a therapy to overcome emotions that would not have happened if not for words on paper – that is the expression of writing.
Omani poetess Nasra al Adawi has been promoting this concept through her concept called Healing Pen. Writing is very personal and it is amazing how writing imprints itself in the brain. Reaching to the other level of knowing and understanding is extending oneself to even the concept of mind mapping. Here there is combination of writing, drawing and coloring – all to connect it to our memory.
That reminds one of the poets of much earlier days who chose to leave inscription of poetic verses on the rocks in Musandam, Oman. Scribes inscribed on rocks, iron and other metals. In Oman, visiting the little museums could show you how people had used walls, camel bones, leather and not to forget pots and doors to inscribe verses from the Holy Quran.
Can we even imagine about the first person who took a stone or any tool to write on the cave walls? Or even much earlier than that would be the cave drawing or pictographs.
And I would love to know if digitalization has changed the way of writing poems today. It is as different as having food using your fingers in comparison to fork and knife.
Do you still write on paper?
The ones who had to write, wrote in any case – even before the arrival of paper. They wrote on palm leaves and many other metal sheets. We are indeed lucky that we are able to see them even today.
In the present day, we do not even spend time on sending out greeting cards, but thankfully, wedding cards as invites are still in fashion.
And as we move to the digital world, while print might be of something from the past one day, enjoy calligraphy and your own handwriting, especially when you write a note of gratitude.
