On Wintery Snow, Robert Frost and Finding Fine Poetry

Sunil Sharma

February is here.

So is snow and ice and wind here in Toronto and elsewhere in North America.

Tough but equally enjoyable, this mood and season of Mother Nature, with its lessons and innate beauty, all around.

I am reminded of Robert Frost and his unique ways of finding inspiration in nature. These lines amply demonstrate the deep connect of  Robert Frost with immediate environment and location of his poetics in the ecology; finding fine poetry, among other things, in snow, the formidable and forbidding cold material:

The way a crow

Shook down on me

The dust of snow

From a hemlock tree

 

Has given my heart

A change of mood

And saved some part

Of a day I had rued.

("Dust of Snow")

What a wonderful mode of seeing and expressing bitter winter and the dazzling snow, in such simple words and imagery---missing from current poetic landscapes!

But the tradition of nature poetry is coming back.

Climate Lit is one good example.

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The February issue combines the general and special sections---our format for many issues in the last few years of our service to the cause of organising fine writing, production and its distribution among its active seekers.

The idea of running a special section is to honour a senior writer/poet by inviting them to guest-edit the concerned section on a given theme and broaden the scope of collaboration and engagement with the reading and writing communities globally.

We are lucky in this endeavour and have continually found solid signatures for both the sections, whenever such issues happen, and even otherwise, in single issues also.

This time, we bring “Voices Within-22”, curated by Gopal Lahiri, the eminent poet-photographer-editor-scientist, admired for his visual imagination and a syntax that is supple and sensory. It is an annual selection of poets writing in English; poets that have made a significant contribution to this hallowed field of writing and representation of a vast country and beyond, nature and other realities in the language inherited from the Raj and then nativized and expanded by the individual gifted poets. A poetic field all its own with its typical scents, sights, sounds and flavours. Gopal “Da” has been kind enough in extending support as an editor and artist to this journal, whenever requested. And he has, as usual, come up with some great works for this annual feature.

Happy to state that you will find some of the top names of the IPE (Indian Poetry in English) here, again this time--- 35 poets that stand out on the basis of syntax, idiom and grammar of their poetry, and, for being consistently prolific in producing serious art for the discerning literary readers.

In the general section, again some exciting voices in prose and poetry writing for you.

We remain thankful to Gopal Lahiri and all the other contributors for their trust and support.

Keep on reading!

And write in.

If any new features you want or doable features, just let us know.

Take care.

Sunil Sharma
Editor, Setu (English)
Toronto, Canada

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Setu, February 2022