Pain Pleasure and Paradox in Poetry: A Verse Compendium

By Manu Mangattu

It has often been observed that in the realm of poetry painful situations yield pleasure; pity and fear can transmute into a delightful and immensely enjoyable emotional state. Poetry seems to enjoy this unusual ability to liberate emotional states from their bondage with our ego so that these emotional states, however tragic and disconcerting they may be, turn out to be pleasurable. These experiences thrive largely on a harmonization of opposites, a state in which contradictions are not only juxtaposed but also interpenetrated. Far from being a perplexing and exasperating experience, as can be the case with contradictions encountered in real life, this harmonization is felt as a blissful condition, one that yields inner peace and fulfilment. Likewise, there is an obvious connection between the language of poetry and contradiction. Poetry often seems to use a language that relies heavily on oxymora, paradoxes and contradictions. Phrases like “the brilliant darkness of a hidden silence”, “dazzling obscurity”, “whispering silence”, “teeming desert” or “undivided division and differentiated unity” are not uncommon in poetry. This verse compendium is an attempt at anthologizing this puzzling chemistry between poetry and paradox. The thrust of this collection is on bringing to the fore the contradictory and paradoxical nature of poetic language and experiences. It showcases thirty-three distinctive poems on the theme penned by contemporary poets from different parts of the world. Akachukwu Christoper Lekwauwa, Anzelyne Shideshe, Ari Alsio, Bharati Nayak, Bri Edwards, David Kush, Douglas Scotney, Dr Antony Theodore, Dr Fabrizio Frosini, Dr Sima Farshid, Edward Kofi Louis, Elizaveta Sudina, Ernest Gift Makuakua, Francis Duggan, Jesus James Llorico, John Chizoba Vincent, John Westlake, Kassem Oude, Khalida Bano Ali, Leloudia Migdali, Lopamudra Mishra, Lyn Paul, Manu Mangattu, Margaret O'Driscoll, Nassy Fesharaki, Nivedita Dubey, Nosheen Irfan, Patti Masterman, Pranayee Gupta Rachamalla, Ric S. Bastasa, Sophy Chen, Tatjana Loncarec and Waheeda Khan are the chief contributors to this anthology.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Manu Mangattu
• Release date: May 21, 2016
• ISBN: 9781310246531

Manu Mangattu

Manu Mangattu is an English Professor, poet, editor, lyricist, film-critic, research consultant and publishing expert. He has published 9 books, 79 international research publications, 97 academic papers and 20 edited volumes with reputed publishers like Routledge, Harper-Collins, Harvard University Press and Penguin. He serves as chief editor/editor for various international journals and is on the syllabus revision and approval committees of many reputed universities. During his stint as an Assistant Professor of English, he had done UGC funded research projects and a SWAYAM-MOOC course on Romantic Literature. He completed a UGC funded research project on “Sachin Tendulkar as an Aesthetic Experience" in 2017. A poet at heart who would live and die in Art, he writes poetry in English and several Indian languages. A polyglot with a passion for music and film, he finds delight in doing translations from Chinese, Persian and Sanskrit. The Chinese Poetry Conglomerate acknowledged his contributions in taking Chinese Poetry to the Western world by naming him "Comrade to Poetry China" in 2016. A visiting faculty at various universities and a quintessential bohemian-vagabond, he conducts poetry readings, workshops and lectures. He won the prestigious “Most read and recommended researcher award” during the last 3 years (2018, 2019 and 2020) with close to ten thousand recommendations garnered through his career. After an apprenticeship in Shakespeare under Dr Stephen Greenblatt, Harvard University, Cambridge, he currently offers part-time guidance to 27 research scholars (2 awarded) from India, Iran, Australia, KSA, Indonesia and Djibouti), and mentors about 1300 post-graduates/ guest lecturers/ research scholars preparing for NTA-NET examination. An ambidextrous ambivert blessed with extreme colour blindness, he also plies his trade in the film and publishing industry. He can be contacted at [e-mail], [phone].

Book preview

It has often been observed that in the realm of poetry painful situations yield pleasure; pity and fear can transmute into a delightful and immensely enjoyable emotional state. Poetry seems to enjoy this unusual ability to liberate emotional states from their bondage with our ego so that these emotional states, however tragic and disconcerting they may be, turn out to be pleasurable. These experiences thrive largely on a harmonization of opposites, a state in which contradictions are not only juxtaposed but also interpenetrated. Far from being a perplexing and exasperating experience, as can be the case with contradictions encountered in real life, this harmonization is felt as a blissful condition, one that yields inner peace and fulfilment. Likewise, there is an obvious connection between the language of poetry and contradiction. Poetry often seems to use a language that relies heavily on oxymora, paradoxes and contradictions. Phrases like the brilliant darkness of a hidden silence, dazzling obscurity, whispering silence, teeming desert or undivided division and differentiated unity are not uncommon in poetry. This verse compendium is an attempt at anthologizing this puzzling chemistry between poetry and paradox. The thrust of this collection is on bringing to the fore the contradictory and paradoxical nature of poetic language and experiences. It showcases thirty-three distinctive poems on the theme penned by contemporary poets from different parts of the world.

Manu Mangattu

Editor

Isthmus of Pain and Joy (An Elegy)

Akachukwu Christoper Lekwauwa

Christoper Lekwauwa was born in Eastern Nigeria on 4th of July 1986 as the fifth son of Felix and Ijeoma Uche. His Christian upbringing has had a strong formative influence on him. His deep-seated empathy for nature slowly branched out into love for literature and passion for poetry. A biomedical scientist and an entrepreneur with interest in fashion and designing, Christoper Lekwauwa is currently based in Southern Nigeria city of Yenagoa, practising Medical Laboratory Science. He asserts that he is a scientist, an entrepreneur, a poet and a Christian all rolled into one. Isthmus of Pain and Joy is an impassioned rendering of the speaker’s grief upon the death of his beloved father. The poem rolls out beautiful and familiar images one after the other, which upon juxtaposition, evoke a tranquil sensation that softly reminds us of the dualistic nature of human existence.

Bitter cold on one side,

The joy on the other kept blood

From freezing in our veins.

Darkness on one side,

Light flickered warmly on the other.

Tears covered one face,

The other went forward with laughter.

Rivers of tears were black and desolate,

But pure joy was harvest in cluster.

The equatorial calm in this half is eerie,

The cries were no more than a faint whisper,

Heard but for the great stillness all around.

We sat beneath a cone of night

In which no star would ever shine.

The silence might have been speaking to me,

Answering my doubts.

Yes! We have travelled,

The unimaginable distance that lay between pain