Hello everyone – hope you are doing well. My turn to host the poetics and this is what I have in mind – history, which has always been a remarkable field of interest for me; more because of what we don’t know than what we do.

This started with my love for historic novels – I read all of them I could get my hands on. I absolutely loved it when a writer picked one real character and used their imagination and narration to re-create a period they had not seen themselves and in this process gave us unique insights into the then social or political landscape. Back in my childhood and adolescence, I was absolutely crazy about those stories – the change of society under one rule to another, the rise and fall of dynasties, romance, power, spirituality, jealousy, conspiracy and what not. Truly inspired by all those chapters, I even wrote a short story once about the origin of coins – loosely based on facts from central Asia, on how it might have evolved in practice – how the first coin was made.

I was recently talking to a friend and fellow poet, about history of art and how it might have evolved. I have been to some of the places in India where sculptures were made on the wall of temples or paintings made on the walls of caves, telling numerous stories and many of which were very sensual in nature. Some of those places are world heritage sites today, like Ajanta and Illora, Khajuraho, Konark. All of those amazing works of art, once made, could not survive the ravages of time. What is still left of them tells a series of stories, though the real history of the sculptors or the artists are not known. This is something I absolutely loathe – that history that has been written or remembered speaks very little of the common people. Instead only the names of dynasties or important rulers are saved. I don’t wish to remember those great artists by the name of the kings they worked for. I don’t think anyone in today’s world would.

If I look at artists working on sculptures today – they use a variety of elements – from clay, plaster, slate, wires and so on (adding some photos I could find). Yet if I look at the styles they very much follow the same patterns, the same styles from the old sculptures on temples. So I sometimes feel sad that a great amount of history is still to be known. So tonight, I wish my fellow poets to write about historic inspiration for art.

I know this may sound a little difficult – but here is what you can do.

• Take an example from your part of the world or look up those names I used in my text above.
• See some of those examples.
• Try to think what would have inspired those artists – love, passion, creativity or freedom, for example.
• You can tell the story of a sculptor as you see it – it doesn’t have to be real or factual. Use your imagination vividly to bring out a hidden story that might not have been told before.
• Even if it is a popular story in your part of the world, you can retell it in your own words and share it with everyone.

One more thing – please use only one or two photos that correspond with the artistic example you have chosen to write about. I hope you have a wonderful experience remembering history and paying a tribute to all the unnamed artists whose works go un-credited.

Now, if you are new to Dversepoets, this is what you have to do.

• Write a poem and post it to your site/blog.
• Enter a link to your poem and your name by clicking Mr Linky below.
• You will find links to other poets. Read and comment on other poet’s work.
• If you are promoting your work on social media, use the tag #dversepoets.
• Lastly , please visit others and read their work.

Thank you all. Have fun.

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