'Nature returning to modern poetry'

FOR POET, WRITER AND TRANSLATOR K SATCHIDANANDAN, NATURE WAS A THEME THAT WAS FADING FROM MODERN POETRY. BUT THE DESTRUCTION OF THE ENVIRONMENT, BROUGHT ABOUT BY THE CAPITALIST IDEA OF DEVELOPMENT, FACILITATED ITS COMEBACK. MARKING THE EVOLUTION OF THIS ECOPOETRY, SATCHIDANANDAN, WHO IS ALSO PRESIDENT OF KERALA SAHITYA AKADEMI,ALONG WITH ASIAN-AMERICAN POET AND PLAYWRIGHT NISHI CHAWLA RECENTLY EDITED GREENING THE EARTH, AN ANTHOLOGY OF POEMS ON THE GLOBAL RESPONSES TO ENVIRONMENTAL CRISES. IN A CONVERSATION WITH ARYA ROHINI AND PREETHA BANERJEE, SATCHIDANANDAN EXPLAINS HOW POETRY AS A MEDIUM IS INSPIRING CHANGE. EXCERPTS:

- ARYA ROHINI AND PREETHA BANERJEE

What is the role of poetry in bringing environmental change?

Poetry is not direct propaganda. It impacts the consciousness of our understanding of ourselves as well as our relationship with other people, with nature and with the universe at large.

It tells us subtly and indirectly that perhaps we need to change our attitude to nature, we need to get over this consumerist madness.

It also tells us that we need to form another idea of development; of our own consciousness, of love, of peace, of a world that is greener and better than one that the predecessors left for us. I have never claimed that poetry alone can change the world, but it can contribute to that change by creating and promoting that kind of consciousness. Ultimately, only when activists and writers, playwrights, filmmakers, painters, sculptors, artists of all kinds, come together, can the change really take place.

Greening the Earth

Editors: K Satchidanandan Nishi Chawla

Publisher: Penguin Random House

MRP: ₹599

Pages: 378

The anthology, Greening the Earth, is focused on nature poetry, which you believe has not always been taken seriously in the literary circle. Has that perception changed?