Tuesday 7 April 2015

F is For a Focus...on Favourites...Frost and Faiz


For F I am responding to two of my Favourite poets today.  One from the East and the other from the West, Faiz Ahmed Faiz  (Roshniyon ka shahr - The City of Lights) and Robert Frost (Acquainted with the Night) respectively.   





Faiz, Faiz Ahmed (1911-1984) 
and 
Frost, Robert (1874-1963)




Light and Dark


There are cities of light, and cities of dark
and I’m acquainted well with both, as most are;
I’ve lain awake nights when some dagger-spark
throbs and fades in every false-hearted star.


And I have seen too the queued up lampposts
pollute the shoreline of the foam-fringed ocean
however far one walked, the  silent ghosts
of light ran alongside out in the open.


I held up my words of booming darkness
I made sure those black wicks were trimmed and low
But the huge litter of light never grew less,
never left me alone in peace even so.






I often get the Feeling that Fiction is more readily accepted as...um...Fictional, i.e. imaginary. Readers have a harder time accepting that poems can be imaginary too, that they are not necessarily mirroring a cardinal truth in the poet's own life, or anyone else's life for that matter! What do you think - is poetry Fiction or Fact? 



And F is for Four (hundred), which is the max word limit for A-Z posts according to those who commented on the question here yesterday. And this post's way less than that, even at the end of this line :)





Posted for the A-Z Challenge 2015





18 comments:

  1. Poetry is like prose - it can be whatever the creator wants it to be.

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  2. Hi Nila - oh dear my posts are exceeding the 400 .. thankfully people still read. Yes - I like Alex comment - he's always to the point .. Yours I enjoy as I do like to understand what I'm reading though!! Cheers

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  3. I love to write fanciful poetry. It's so much fun to dive into my imagination. I think poetry can be anything. :)

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  4. I think poetry can be both fiction and fact. Or anything it wants to be. Only the poet knows and that is the beauty :)

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  5. I hadn't truly thought before about whether poetry could be fictional -- but it makes perfect sense. Whenever we use words, we're exploring emotions and feelings and all kinds of things. The framework could be a story, or a poem, or whatever works best. Nice post!

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  6. Very very good, and I've read a lot of poetry where it was fictional, but always with a meaning that held fact. Really enjoyed this! Lisa, co-host AtoZ 2015, @ http://www.lisabuiecollard.com

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  7. I think both prose and poetry is fiction and facts. It's fiction in the story on the surface and truth about the nature of human beings >:)

    Cold As Heaven

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  8. I think both prose and poetry is fiction and facts. It's fiction in the story on the surface and truth about the nature of human beings >:)

    Cold As Heaven

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  9. Very interesting :) I write a fiction and poetry blog and the question you raise is a valid one. I write both fictional and non-fictional poetry. I also feel that fictional poetry is still rooted in our experiences and perhaps coated with the story to conceal the complete truth. Lovely verse there.

    Found you via the A-Z Challenge :)

    *Shailaja/Alternate Angles/A-Z*

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  10. Poetry can be fiction, or fact, or just a way to express an emotion. But so can prose. It's all about how you choose to use the words.

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  11. I love fanciful poetry too. It helps me delve into my innermost thoughts and feelings whereas my regular writings are non-fiction. Btw, I'd never heard of either of the poets you're referring to.

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  12. I love Robert Frost. I agree that people often think poetry must be intensely personal, but I don't think that's true...I think it's a perfect vehicle for imagination!

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  13. When I was young, Robert Frost was probably the first poet anyone could name. One of my teachers made everyone memorize "Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening."

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  14. When I was young, Robert Frost was probably the first poet anyone could name. One of my teachers made everyone memorize "Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening."

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  15. I would say poetry can be either or anything the author intends it to be. In fact doorwaybetweenworlds.com states it much better than I do but that is what I also think.
    Thank you for the nice comment on my blog.

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  16. The English word 'poem' seems to have come from Greek and Latin words meaning 'create', so I think poems are more like fiction than fact. However, we could write about facts in the form of a poem, too.

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  17. I think that's the beauty of poetry. It can mean different things to different people. I could see your troubled lone walker not being able to sleep and not being able to disappear into the night like they wanted.

    You can find me here:
    ClarabelleRant

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  18. very baautiful poetic on F.

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