'I will fly to thee, Not charioted by Bacchus and his pards, But on the viewless wings of Poesy!'

A Literary Being | A Few Guidelines

Have you ever wondered or pondered a while on the amazing power of art over us all? Well, yes! Art has this wonderful power to liberate and set free our souls from its mind-forged manacles, its fetters and its shackles, ain’t it?

This post, the second in a multi-part series, seeks to offer valuable guidelines to help cultivate in the student of literature, their very own sweet creative vibes, with originality in their style and creativity in their substance! 

This liberative power of art as panacea then, has such sweet therapeutic effects galore on the soul! One reason why Keats addresses the nightingale in like fashion -

I will fly to thee, Not charioted by Bacchus and his pards, But on the viewless wings of Poesy!

Indeed, the creative wings of poesy help liberate him from the fetters and shackles of this present feverish, frettish world and stay high high above, and far far away from the madding crowd’s ignoble strife!

So yup! How on heaven does art liberate the soul?

When art is done for heart’s sake!

No wonder then that this ‘true blue literary spirit’, find mention in Act 1, Scene 1 of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar: we are ‘menders of bad soles!’

Literary surgeons then we are! Something to the likes of a medical surgeon!

And pray how do we nobly and ably do justice to our vocation?

Herein below, me thought of outlining a few simple steps that would help a great measure in ‘testing our call’ and doing full justice to our role in this life as literary beings!

First and foremost, let’s take pride in the fact that we create entire worlds through our way with words! Indeed, skeletons of ages past, right from memories of our grandma's days,  grandpa's house, or our childhood days come teeming with life in full flesh and blood in our representations, ain't they? 

There’s immense power in those worlds that we seek to carve and to create through our words, ain’t it? Goes without saying why great artists have been great therapists and healers in great measure!

Medicines may heal the body, but literature heals the soul!

So yes! Art liberates! True art liberates the soul to the fullest possible degree!

Every literary being then, is a gifted artist by default! A creator by default!

This said, shall we, as a first baby step, try to make a bonfire of, or try to get rid of, all those lacklustre, meanish, crappy, sloppy, slipshod forwards that come down to us in our personal whatsapp / social media walls! A true blue literary being will never stoooop this low to take time off their schedules, to forward crappy stuff that does not gel with their vibes and their blithe spirits!

As the saying goes, Never Rob Peter to pay Paul! Either you pay Paul from your own wallet, ;-) or better ask Peter for his permission to help you pay your dues to Paul, making fully sure that you acknowledge Peter in the process! Never rob a pavapetta Peter to pay Paul! That’s real disgusting and demeaning for a true blue literary being!

I should admit that, of the hundreds of messages we teachers receive on festive occasions, or on teachers’ days, it takes just a jiffy of a split second, to know which is which, and who has sent you what! If it’s a forwarded message on a clichéd, worn-out, stale, ready-made template, it’s gotta be, obviously from a non-literary being! On the other hand, if it’s a message that’s so neatly typed out, in a poetic vein, with a rhythmic cadence to its feel, a unique style of its own, then you can sure make out that it’s real gotta be a literary spirit, a kindred spirit of our own ilk and tribe!

Even those ‘saintly’ ‘sermonising’ Good Morning / Good Night wishes that come knocking at our walls on a patterned routine every other dawn / morn – watch them keenly! And hey presto! The difference is like chalk and cheese! Ain’t it?

When it’s so creatively composed with an involvement and commitment to its structure, its texture, its sheen and shine, with a nuanced eye to style, you can sure see a true blue literary spirit at work out there, fashioning it with such intense joy to share it with all the mortals out there!

These are the liberated literary beings who let their own light shine! They ain’t ever long or wish or even think of ‘reflecting’ light, and that too from someone else’s candle!

The world needs more of such creative luminaries! Plenty of them! In good measure!

In this techno-savvy world, if we may define a literary being this way –

Well, a literary being of the highest order is one who shares only his/her own creative vibes with others! They loathe and despise even the very thought of forwarding any other crap, anything else apart from what they themselves have created!

Yes! Please remember that, you ain’t a courier forwarding agent, forwarding something sent to you by a sender to a receiver! Let’s leave this forwarding business to the courier agents then! ;-) They do it amazingly well!

But as for we and our ilk, we shall share our own thoughts and our very own ideas!

Together, let us strive to fly on our own sweet wings, not on borrowed wings!

The world badly madly needs such vibrant, original, creative spirits! Not mortals who press the forward button at their whim and fancy, on every trivial, silly joke and crappy quote that’s been wallowing on their own walls!

One such creative literary being i could sense in Bhuva and his team at DOORS. They strive always to come out with their own sweet vibes, in their own, unique, sweet style, that's such a delight to anyone with a love and taste for the literary! 

Secondly, what exactly defines a vibrant literary being?

Simple! A liberated literary being is defined by his/her own sure, sweet style!

Yup! It’s your own unique style that sets you out from the crowd! That seeks to define you!

A liberated literary being then, strives hard to cultivate one’s own style in all its refined elegance and grandeur!

Just a couple of months ago, in one of my PG Classes, I asked my class to define the word ‘Style’!

Their answers were real amazing!!!

I am just reproducing them all, verbatim, for y’all!

Style is, ‘A pattern that’s unique to you!’ says Amita.

Style is, ‘A point that you represent in your case’, says Elizabeth.

Style is, ‘A distinct expression of your personality’, says Sangamithra.

Style is, ‘Something authentic about their character’, says Arunesh.

Style is, ‘How one stands apart from others’, says Sharon Glory.

Style is, ‘Something that comes naturally’, says Sudesh.

These six wonderful definitions sum up to a tee, the importance of style to a liberated literary soul!

Be it your blogs!

Be it your vlogs!

Be it your images!

Be it your messages!

Be it your audios!

Be it your videos!

Be it your wishes!

Be it your dishes!

Be it your tests!

Be it your quests!

Make sure you give 'em all your very own unique best!

That makes you always a cut above the rest!

Let the ‘words of your mouth and the meditations of your heart’ carry your own sweet, inimitable style all of the time!

Let them carry your own thunderous, rapturous voice!

Let them carry your beautiful fingerprints, and heartprints on them all of the time!

Let them always fly on your wonderful, strong wings all of the time! Nayver on borrowed wings!

Today on, let’s together, as the truest liberated literary beings that we all are, let’s cheerfully take a resolve in our minds and in our hearts, to stop right on its tracks, the scrappy-crappy routine of forwarding to our friends or teachers, all those dull, sloppy videos, slipshod jokes, tiresome good morning templates, lacklustre forwards, forwards that do not stand the test of truth etc!

In short, if it doesn’t carry your heartprint or your style, you better not share or forward it to anyone!

Today, let’s take a resolve to that end!

And yes! Let’s leave the dutiful drudgy routine of doing those pavapetta crappy forwards to the rest!

Now let’s read the third line that opens this post!

I will fly to thee, Not charioted by Bacchus and his pards, But on the viewless wings of Poesy!

Yes! A true blue literary spirit ain’t gotta need any chariot to fly!

And that’s because their unique art, their unique way of writing, their unique pen, their unique thoughts and their unique style are so powerful enough, to do it for them, much-o-much better than a bombastic Bacchus or his pavapetta pards! Ain’t they?

To be continued…

PS: Thank you my dearie, lovely readers for all your sweet, lovely mails. I cherish and relish them all so very much! They mean so much to me! Well, I take my own sweet time to reply to any mail that knocks at my inbox! So in case your reply doesn’t come way too soon, chances are, a longyyy mail might be your way! Please remember: ‘Delay’als are never Denials! ;-)