Soft sighs of poetry in era of fiction

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At a time when fiction wears the literary crown and non-fiction scales the best-seller ladder, poetry has barely managed to hold its own. Poetry these days is a genre that mainstream publishers, agents and bookstores prefer to keep a distance from. But some loyalists still swear by the expression through verse.
If and I is journalist and researcher Navkirat Sodhi’s second poetry collection after un, published in 2007. So what prompted her to prefer poems to prose? Says Navkirat, “After studying and working in London for a few years, there was a time towards the end of my stay when something snapped and I lost interest in the ‘struggle’. I took time off to read, watch films and unlearn. Soon scraps of paper started getting filled and ended as a collection of poems a year later.”
Considering that publishers find poetry a risky proposition, isn’t it a Herculean task to get published? “I used to think this was the case. I too have a separate file of rejection letters from Indian and non-Indian publishers with a standard reply saying that they read the work with interest, but unfortunately, it doesn’t quite fit their list. However, two collections later and having read poetry to varied audience, I realised poetry’s place is very much intact, and unlike fiction, it needs more personal attention by its listeners rather than the other way around. It is difficult to generalise, which niche appreciates the verse for my personal experience tells me that honest poetry touches everyone,” elucidates Sodhi.
She believes if a poet has conviction and is involved with every part of the process from publishing to marketing, there is no reason strong enough for poetry not to co-exist with fiction symbiotically. “I am sure there is a revival underway and poetry will get its due,” sums up Sodhi.

A poem by Navkirat If and I