Saturday, April 7, 2007

Artistic Innocence

Is it the child or the portrait that I admire,
The almond brown eyes make me fly higher.
I do wish to come down you know,
Profound words of joy to flow.
Is it the child or the portrait that I admire,
His shining black hair makes me fly higher.
The canvas is essential dear I understand,
There is no one who has an upper-hand.
Is it the child or the portrait that I admire,
Angel like innocence makes the day retire.
It is night now darling I feel heavenly,
Those curious eyes I adore terribly.
Is it the child or the portrait that I admire,
The artist of grace do I desire?
Oh! It is art that I admire for it knows no death,
The wings of fragility feel my breath.
It is art indeed that I admire both in form and truth,
The influence of childhood upon youth.
By Ajay Seshadri

Sun Never Sets



Forming letters to create a meaning
In distant passion far reaching
Closer you get to finer silk
The joy you beget in sweet milk
Familiarity never takes for granted
Affections and impudence implanted
Sweet to that tongue is milk and honey
To which the arrested find funny
Distant passion is it torture-never
Fierce in intensity for the better
Far-fetched ambitions are never far-fetched
To you without they are fearfully stretched
But the closer to distant passion you get
In your heart the sun never will set.

By Ajay Seshadri

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Philosophy of poetry

Doubtfulness is an obstinate desire to find truth. Doubting is a means of examining validity. Reality as perceived by the senses is something a rationalist takes for granted as fundamentally true. We may safely call it an axiom. The external world by this definition is an axiom. Doubts arise when a subject of contention is not known with complete certainty.

Philosophers have strong leanings towards abstract phenomena. The more abstract a subject the more of imagination and visualization it demands. A philosopher theorizes with a curious motive of intellectual satisfaction. Relevance and practical value of his theories need not bother him the least bit. He is different from the metaphysician in the sense that he is rendered more realistic. Many metaphysicians in many ways are apt to doubt the reality of the external world. The invisible world very interestingly appeals to his fancies the way number theory appeals to a serious mathematician. The former remains unverified unlike the latter. The very many concepts in metaphysics cannot be perceived by the senses. The doctrine of illusion receives tremendous attention by metaphysicians.

Philosophic doubts differ from metaphysical ones. The nature of phenomena and things concern the philosopher. The ultimate questions generic in content get addressed by him. If one views philosophy as just an extension of science, Logic and analysis play a crucial part in discovering the nature of truth and ultimate reality. If any assertion is beyond it then it is likely to be ignored.

Now I wish to discuss the branch of aesthetics affected by philosophy. I will have to move away from hard-core philosophy subjects in order to contemplate its relevance to literature (aesthetics). The ultimate questions such as the concept of imagination, theories of consciousness and literature’s explicit philosophical implications will be addressed. These questions form the philosophic doubts which creep up in literature. It is aesthetics that will be analyzed and not so much the aesthetic impacts. Value of literature is determined by its rich flavor of stylistic grace. The impact is secondary but essential for mass popularity. This will not prove of any vital importance to the literary or philosophical analyst.

By not restricting the analysis to critical appreciation I shall have gone to the transitory stage where literary or poetic work of art cuts across the border-line of philosophical investigations.

A poetic movement is in its own way as charming and significant as the poem itself. Nature and type characterize cult. Poetry itself mirrors imaginative aspirations fulfilled in imaginary worlds. Such a fulfillment may be fictitious. Nevertheless, it is fulfillment.

An inspired poem as a narrative happens unconsciously and any attempt to cater to another state of mind and not the poet’s will render it artificial. Indeed, editing is more apt at the conscious level as the constraints of grammar constantly keep an inspired activity under check. Editing involves being conscious of grammar. The end-readers constitute the audience and the interests of the end-readers vary depending on their tastes and wave-length. Grammar is less prone to change or dynamism than human interests. A study of syntax develops as much an understanding of the form of prose as rhyme schemes do of poetry.

Free language like free thought sustains independence and cannot be governed.
Poetry in free language and thought reveals emotions as figurative realities beyond the grasp of the rational. Therefore it is no wonder if it happens to have idiosyncrasies when we view it grammatically. Grammar is prescriptive while language in its free form is neither descriptive nor prescriptive but relative. Communication of thought must keep in mind the standards and levels of knowledge of the end-reader which it hopes to inform. Here the end-reader is the constraint. A language-expert need not be a good communicator. Somebody who communicates well necessarily cannot analyze the dynamics of language the way a language-expert is expected to do.

Philosophic doubts and literary and language ones converge at a point of enquiry. Doubt undoubtedly marks the beginning of all inquiry. There is no such thing as relevance of doubt. It is irrelevant undoubtedly. In-fact it is more normal than a conclusion. A conclusion is important but it involves the highest degree of risk and responsibility. Conclusions about poetry and prose as literary forms involve delving into forms with romantic intensity. In prose, form precedes essence. In poetry essence exists in the form of form. Essence is the form. Essence and form merge in poetry like no other literary-form observed.

It is important for prose to adhere to some level of grammatical level-headedness if we suppose that prose is direct in presentation.
The content is free of choice. There can be no limits to content. Human comprehension may be limited but imagination beats limitation.

By Ajay Seshadri

Sunday, March 11, 2007

Essay in the hands of the individual

An individual should explore the truth regardless of the pressures exerted on him by others. You are not under any obligation to succumb or conform or accept anybody’s dogmas. Nobody can prescribe a path. So devising one is out of the question. You need to have at the minimum the spirit to explore the intricate depths of your being. Solitude can happen only when time becomes extinct. (The idea is put forward without getting into the question of whether time is real or otherwise)

In all earnestness an essay is a really pure form of inquiry. I have found in an essay what I could not find in any other creative expression with the single exception of poetry. In an essay there is a beautiful element of personal touch. Its simplicity will forever remain undisturbed irrespective of the content the essayist writes about. The style may be bombastic depending on the writer but in the garb of the flowery language, lives the resolute personality.

Poetry is technically a code. Decoding it is unusually difficult because the varieties of form are many. It takes time to actually decode the hidden personality of the poem. You may not expect a poem to be direct as it is purely stylish. Essay on the other hand hits the bull’s eye in directness of personal expression. Essay comes closest to explorative writing. Poetry is beauty as it appears to sensitivity. It travels straight to the heart only when the intellect grasps its hidden meaning. The soul of a poem is allowed to unite with the soul of the reader only when its body is understood and appreciated affectionately.

In an essay the soul and body are one and the same. In an explorative essay there is inquiry not only into one's own personality (that is the observer) but also an inquiry into the observed. Both happen simultaneously. Opinions also have place in this kind of essay as long as their disguise becomes less evident. A personal essay need not be conclusive. Wide reading of such essays suggests that some characterized by agnostic-neutrality need seldom arrive at any conclusion. Flow guides conclusive essays without being blinded by inhibition.

Then there is also the transcendent essay. A transcendent essay is one that causes the writer and the reader to transcend their own limitations through the therapy of creative expression. Any essay can be transcendent depending on what it leads to.

The essay is a direct and simple work of art that conveys a focused thought in diverse modes. The inspiration to carve one comes from within as words are formed by the mind as and when thought decides.

A personal essay may be varied in length. The content varies from one of trivia to one that is ultra-sensitive. It is useful to flavor some essays with the sugar of humor. It isn’t essential though. Humorous essayists must, if they want the reader’s attention arrested, know when to drop in an amusing moment. Humor makes the narrative all the more entertaining in the same way sugar makes water-mellon juice more sweet.

Apart from humorous essays there are of course epigrammatic essays full of mediating repartee, sentences with multiple implications, imagery and witty aphorisms. The content in such essays can be down to earth. It is quite possible for such an essay to contain strong opinions. However it is not so much an opinion as in the way of putting it. The way it is presented is of utmost importance.

Pun, an added feature to writing stimulates the reader’s intellect. Word-play as an exciting venture for any essayist differentiates an essay from the plain ones which may seem pedantic. An epigrammatic essay by itself is a challenge thrown to the writer as sentences or phrases with multiple implications will dilute the thought.

Other possible consequences exist also. It can potentially render a simple event or phenomenon overtly exaggerated. It might even trivialize an essential point worth the pondering of several minds.

Well, I have talked about some kind of essays that come to my mind. All of them are worth the same degree of attention. A personal essay is in its light a unique work of art. It takes the gift of transparency in expression to give life to personal thoughts and feelings. We may suppose a personal essay to be subjective but despite this, subjectivity cannot steal the charm that it has come to be associated with. In-fact it is this subjectivity which drives the reader to marvel over the wonders of human thought. An opinion need not interest us but the way it is put makes all the difference.


There are thoughts in empty space quite viable to scrutiny and far more worth than the opinions of the human mind. Those are the thoughts, the essayist and the poet give shape to with an inconsistency touched by the grace of reason that produce a remarkable work of ingenious immortality.

By Ajay Seshadri