Interpoetry

POETRY

Poetry is certainly and unquestionably the most ancient and the most respectable form of civilized literature. Its art for a poem is an artifact,
and artifacts are self exposure. Poetry whets the imagination by causing a strong foment of visual ideas. Ideas denote the final stage of responses to a
work of art
when emotion has spent itself, and have no emotive implicitness in themselves. Begin with the stimulus that gave the ideas and the ideas will follow.
Just as in sexual intercourse, when one never concentrates upon the orgasm, but on the salacious causative factors. This is known as imagery (reflection).
A Vital aspect of poetry

Poetry can do 101 things, delight, sadden, disturb, amuse, instruct. It may express every possible
shade of emotion, and describe every conceivable kind of event but there is only 1 thing that all
poetry must do, it must praise all it can for being and for happening.
A poem should be both a verbal Earthly paradise, a timeless world of pure play, which
gives us delight precisely because of its contrast to our historical existence with all its insoluble
problems and inescapable suffering, at the same time we want a poem to be true ... and a poet
cannot bring us any truth without introducing into his poetry the problematic, the painful, the
disorderly, the ugly. I

Poetry must evince delight in disorder, for it is obliged to praise, and a way to do that is to elucidate the delight in the disorder.
Disorder being, say the many emotional junctures, and inspirational events which may actually be unrelated but for the emotional fusion which creates
originality thereby entering the realm of delight. Delight being the harmony of metrical structure, scansion, syntax, the euphony of a hyphen between the
caesura, and all this (relying on line as a formal formatted unit, and on rhythm as an intrinsic technical element consisting of internal/external rhyme,
iambs (syllabic conglomerates), and the metrical stitch) is poignantly significant. Albeit that delight remains arid till it's praised itself for being and
for happening

It's benevolence if the auditory capacity imparts gratitude otherwise
it's my articulatory thirst whence is it canzone.

Hence, in limning delight in disorder, delight follows disorder. As writes Auden, one of the greatest English poets (of what we can consider as the disorder side building up to the metamorphic state of delight)

Musical notes as you say have no meaning or significance taken individually but when arranged in a
definite scheme of relations, they present to the hearer an emotional sequence. So with words. The 2
functions of words must not be confused, the emotive use, and their use for making logical
judgments ... in poetry it is immaterial whether the word series is logical or not, what is important is
that the emotional sequence should be unbroken (a wet dream, where the dream-events are often
highly illogical, but the emotional sequence is perfect). II

Then, to quote the same poet, explicating the delight stage (delightfully)

A poem is a witness to man's knowledge of evil as well as good, every poem, therefore, is an
attempt to present an analogy to that paradisial state in which freedom and law, system and order
are united in harmony. Every good poem is very nearly a Utopia. Again, an analogy, not an
imitation.

In other words

Within a single work the poet may move from 1 mode to another, preserving overall unity through the
consistency of the formal pattern. III

Thus, a poet's task is just to hew stars from Earth's dust and shine them in the heavens, and it is his/her duty to pay homage to beauty,
and to be terrified of language corruption. To fight, against it by personal example, and to alienate from the collective for this purpose and to
reverently maintain language sanctity.

A poet's experience cannot be considered alien to the common experience of humanity at large. The universe (as such) lies within the poet's heart,
perhaps, even without his appreciation. True poetry, therefore, is a self exposure of its entire age, and people, and never diminishes in its magnetism
'Poets are undoubtedly the superior class and as individuals are pleasant, tolerant and excellent companions.IV

The ideal audience a poet visualizes (not addresses) fall into 3 categories

I. Those the poet/poetess admires (the beautiful), and those they love.
II. The Powerful.
III. Fellow Poets.

On the contrary

The actual audience he gets consists of myopic schoolteachers, pimply young men who eat in
cafeterias, and his fellow poets. This means that, in fact he writes for his fellow poets. V

Whatever the import of poetic experience, it's at best inspirational. Poetry is composed through an in built intuitive internal modus operandi and in a
transcendental state, therefore poetry is albeit more acute, less direct, more suggestively cryptic than prose

I know only one thing that I'm a poet. At times it feels as if verse is such an excruciating
coercion of my being passing over which I feel happiness or that mirror of my senses which
causes me to pass through a strange relish and intoxication of knowing me myself. Here no
action and no precept is corroborated, who can claim recognition of human spirit. It's merely
our own individual notion and our own individual apprehension. VI

This is all I have learnt of poetry so far.

Aleem, Obaidullah. Viran saray ka diya. (1974).
Auden, Wystan Hugh. Letter to John Auden. 1927.
Squares & Oblongs. 1948.
The dyer's hand. (Faber & Faber, 1962).
Chaplin, Sir Charles Spencer. My Autobiography. (1964).
Encyclopedia Britannica. (1994).
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I The Dyer's Hand. Wystan Hugh Auden. (Faber & Faber, 1962).
II Letter to John Auden. Wystan Hugh Auden. 1927.
III Encyclopedia Britannica. 1994.
IV My Autobiography. Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin. 1964.
V Squares and oblongs. Wystan Hugh Auden. 1948.
VI Viran saray ka diya. Obaidullah Aleem. 1974.

Von herzen, möge es zu herzen gehen! 1

My aim in writing this piece is to briefly glance at the heart's convolutions from a spiritual vantage point. I've shortened the text keeping it close to
the original bunch of notes otherwise as Mir puts it, it would have been a case of

The telling was compendious but became lengthy
Zest of heart prolonged the marvel

Virtuous, god fearing hearts are the throne and abode of god. Hazrat Jesus (peace be upon him) said 'Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see god' Fear of god is to do with the heart, not the mind.
In times of religious anarchy men worshipped the sun, stars, moon, scorpions, snakes, cats, monkeys, elephants, cows for fear that they might strike them
down, resulting from lack of knowledge about them.

Purity of heart in our pre-death existence determines our nature of existence after death

Purity of heart demands that at no times should we think, say or do anything which might be
displeasing to god, and with this spiritual goal ever before us it is necessary to seek help and the
protection of god at all times. 2

Hazrat David (peace be upon him) would pray 'Create in me a clean heart, O god: and renew a right spirit within me.'
Implying that his life experience/journ
ey began on the right path and that god may constantly guide him along it. Not swerving to the extremities. This is the prayer taught in the ever glorious opening chapter of The Holy Quran too

Guide us on the right path.
The path of those bestowed thy blessings, not those who incurred thy displeasure and not
those who went astray.3

Hearts must acknowledge existence of a god, and the truth of his prophets with help from the mind's intellectual faculties. The heart is never content
(merely) with physical proofs but seeks metaphysical proofs

Mind and body run on
Different time-tables:
Not until our morning
Visit here can we
Leave the dead concerns of
Yesterday behind us,
Face with all our courage
What is now to be4

If the heart is a monarch then the mind's its minister. The mind is a logical councillor in heart-decided matters, for the heart's decisions are illogical.
The mind concentrates on incentive, on evidence, on upshot, whilst the heart is governed by sensational powers. It gravitates to beauty and through a sensory power
of the esoteric (because ethereal) nature, all the while importuned by the mind. The mind is subject to formality and the heart is unceremonious. It is only love
divine which unmeshes the incessant enigmas ensuing from the wrangles of heart and mind through wisdom and by enslaving the senses. This is the Nirvana reached by
god's prophets and their followers. Death to them is merely a gateway to their beloved's threshold, and life a mission towards it. Hazrat Socrates (peace be upon him)
was condemned to drink the bowl of hemlock (poison). He was offered release on the condition that he stops preaching the truth. His reply is recorded by Plato to
have been 'Men of Athens, I honour and love you, but I shall obey god rather than you, and while I have life and strength I shall never cease from practicing and
teaching philosophy and indicatingthe truth for everyone I meet.'
When a large delegation visited Hazrat Abu Talib in whose home our Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) stayed, and threatened
to fight with him if he did not stop his nephew from preaching against their idols, offering in return any amount of wealth he wished for, large luxurious
homes, and beautiful women. His uncle approached him saying that enough is enough 'Don't put my life and your life at risk, and don't burden me with what I can't bear.'
Do you know what his reply was? His reply was 'Uncle, should they place the sun in my right hand and the moon in my left hand in return for abandoning my call,
I wouldn't do anything of the sort till Allah brings about this message to triumph or till I perish.' At this point the prophet's eyes burst with tears and he
turned to walk away when his uncle called him back and reassured him saying 'My nephew, you go and say whatever you like. I'll never withdraw my protection from you,
and I'll never let you down.'
Inspiration is mostly rooted in the mind and not all inspiration is revelation, revelation always in the heart despite the fact that not all of the heart's
feelings are revelation

O ye who believe respond to Allah and his messenger when he calls you to bring you to life,
and know that Allah surely supervenes betwixt a man and his heart and that it's him towards
whom thou shalt return.5

To benefit from anything to the max one's heart must be drawn to it. Revelation descends upon the heart in accordance with its state, and the states of
heart are contingent upon change. How Hazrat Promised messiah's words penetrate the core of the heart:

A heart finds its way to a heart. One's own heart is a mirror for oneself. He can view everything
in it. The heart is indeed the crux of benediction and real blessing lies within the heart.6

Auden, Wystan Hugh. Collected Poems. (Faber & Faber, 1973).
The Holy Bible.
Orchard, Bashir Ahmad. Guide Posts. (1997).
The Holy Quran.

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1 Ludwig Louis Van Beethoven. 1823.
2 Guide Posts. Bashir Ahmad Orchard. 1997.
3 The Holy Quran. Al Fatiha {The Preface}. 6, 7.
4 Collected Poems. WH Auden. (Faber & Faber, 1973).
5 The Holy Quran. Al Anfal {The Booty}. 25.
6 Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad - The Promised Messiah and Reformer of the Age. Friday 31 January 1903.