Pravat Kumar Padhy, is a Petroleum Geologist, ONGC, in India. He received his Masters in Science and Ph.D in Applied Geology from Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad, presently lives with wife Namita at Rajahmundry (AP), India. He is blessed with two daughters, Smita and Rupa. He has published literary articles and poems in leading English news papers, journals, anthologies and e-zines. His literary work appears in 'Interviews with Indian Writing in English', Indian Literature, Anger in Action: Exploration in Indian Writing in English, Spectrum History of Indian Literature in English, Alienation in Contemporary Indian English Poetry, A Survey of Indian English Poetry etc. Awarded "Certificate of Honour" from Writer's Life Line, Canada. He was included in the International Who's Who in Poetry and Poets, Literary article titled "Abstract Poems" adjudged as the 2nd best entry in the Asian American Poetry e-Journal. Member, World Society of Poets, USA, Honoured as "Featured Poet" in Poetry Street e-Journal, UK, Editors' Choice Poet award by Poetbay, USA. Poetry award from Writers Guild of India. His haiku and tanka appeared in World Haiku Review, LYNX-Aha Poetry, Akita Haiku International Network, The Four Seasons Haiku, Notes From the Gean, Anglo-Japanese Society (Tanka Online) etc. Credited publication of verse, 'Silence of the Seas'.Blog: http://www.pkpadhy.blogspot.com
1) Why do you write haiku?
Of late I came across the Japanese shorter version of poems and I respect the age old exquisite poetic work of iconic literary pursuits of Japanese poets. I always wish to express the poetic essence in a compressed way so as to make the reader feel a continuous journey through the preserved meaning of the flow of poetry. We all are integral part of nature entwining the philosophy of science and arts. The tiniest object of nature has its genuine worth in this world and it is associated with us in different forms. It is the discovery of this truth that has given rise to genesis of a haiku poem. Haiku give the meaning of cause and response of each entity through the aesthetic way of presentation. Haiku imparts life to every object with the help of vivid imagery. Essentially the genre of expression acts as a diligent medium of wide spectrum of exploration. Moreover, it gives a liberty of expressing the experiment. Writing haiku unveils the poetic essence and lively moments associated with all the entities within the fold of nature and human observations. Essentially it explores the uncommon in the common. This is the precise reason I like the shorter version, like haiku, senryu, tanka etc.
Recently I have the opportunity of reading the scholarly articles by A C Missias, Jeanne Emrich, Jim Kacian, Jane Reichhold , Elizabeth St Jacques and others. Alice Frampton (Associate Editor, The Heron's Nest), Hidenori Hiruta (Editor, Akita Haiku International Network), Lorin Forn (Editor, The Notes From the Glean), rendered immense encouragement about haiku and I always remain grateful to them. I share my poetic regards to Valarie Vandegriff , Beatrice V, Colin Stewart, Leislipaints, Anna, Yousei Hime, Hisashi Nakamura, Michel D. Brown, R K Singh, Aju Mukhopadhyay, Urmila Kaul, Kala Ramesh and other well wishers for their support.
My special regards to Poet Curtis Dunlap for rendering this beautiful opportunity to share my feelings to poet brothers and sisters of the world.
2) What other poetic forms do you enjoy?
I used to enjoy poetic feeling of expression at an early age. I always feel acknowledging nature, social feelings and metaphysical intuition in my writings. In an interview for the collection, edited by Atma Ram, I said, "Poems come to my mind as fragrance to flower. Anything I see, it creates a symbolic frame in my mind......... when I see a small grain of seed, I feel it is tiny / because it nests with care / the mightiest in it.
Earlier I wrote both longer and shorter versions of free verses. I feel more comfortable writing shorter poems, giving enough energy for unveiling the touch of beauty through brevity. Earlier I was not fully versed with the Japanese short verses and I used to compose concise style of poems and named the minimalistic expression as "Abstract Poems".
Recently I tried to express the perspective of poem writings, its essence in a mini autobiographical way, directly bridging the poets inner feeling and his relationship with the society. Moreover, such writings candidly export the poetic essence to society from the poet himself.
I also love to write senryu and tanka. These type of poems give an opportunity to pronounce human and philosophical excellence . Recently I have coined an idea of "Astro-Poetry" assimilating the essence of scientific entities in poetic canopy. In one of my poems titled "The Other Being" I wrote : At times I wonder/Perhaps we are the/Living images/Of distance cosmic rays/At an imaginative focal length.
I also enjoy reading haiga and haibun.
3) Of the many wonderful haiku you've written, what do you consider to be your top three?
creation is mystical
vast value of life
compressed in a seed
World Haiku Review, Issue 2, August, 2009
Dog is misspelled
the child discovered
the Great
LYNX-Aha Poetry, XXV:1 February, 2010
Desert land
measuring sand dune height
a lone lizard.
The Notes From the Gean, Vol.2, Issue 1,June 2010
If you've been enjoying this weekly series and have not contributed, please consider sharing your response (whether it be for haiku or tanka) to the three little questions that Pravat Kumar Padhy answered. You must be a published poet to participate.
