POETRY  CHAIR

Talking of Bibhu Padhi

Bibhu Padhi is a poet who has  published internationally, perhaps more than any other contemporary Indian poet writing in English.  He is a poet who has made felt appearances in magazines others would  rip themselves apart to get published in. The magazines include,  Encounter, The Rialto, Stand,  Poetry (Chicago), Prairie Schooner, The Illustrated Weekly of India, Orbis,  Chandrabhaga,  New English Review,  Missing Slate, Ampersand Review,  Bacon Review,  Rose Bud,  and so many others. Though his  poetic achievements are admirable  and enviable, they  often remain subdued, and star crossed. He is consistently ignored by those who sit in judgement of Indian poetry, bringing on that 'Let in, left out' feeling.  By his soft nature, he himself lives the life of a recluse.He reminds us of the American poet Simon Perchik,  who gets published everywhere, but remains in stupor, while others  much less  talented have forged ahead.

 

Bibhu is quietly sensuous, and sensate. More often, his poetry is contemplative and unfolds  soft  misty petals of  recollections of time, space, love, nature and friends, that endear and even calm our reading mind.  It is not the poetry of complex modernity. The truss is never violent or volatile.  The poetry is gentle, introspective, and changes  colours  gently as perhaps a leaf would,  during fall. Often, an entire collection can be a necklace of  valuable beads of the same colour and tone.

 

According to Bibhu,  the appearance that poetry makes to the creative self is  akin to a mystery. 'I do not force myself to write a poem' he says. The poem comes, and perhaps poetry has a way, the way it comes, each to his own. 'I  write, he says, perhaps three or four poems a month.  Even as I write the poem, I do not know how it'll steer itself  around'.

 

It may not be wrong to think that Bibhu was perhaps one of Pritish Nandy's discoveries and among his favourites among the new poets then  writing in the  late sixties. 

 

Bibhu has been an avid collector of his own poems. He has more than a dozen collections to his credit.  His new book of poems is forthcoming from Harper (India). He is also a brilliant translator into English from Odisha. His translations of Sitakant Mahapatra that I have had occasion to read and review in The Hindu Literary Magazine,  have the gusto to surpass and redefine even the originals. 

 

Bibhu is one of the greater  gifts to Indian poetry in  English.  It is time we took a  real note of that.

 

Gopikrishnan Kottoor.