The venue where the perennial fountain of lively Poetry thrives: Friday Poetry Reading at White Lotus Bookshop, Kathmandu.
“A poet must never make a statement simply because it is sounds poetically exciting; he must also believe it to be true.”
W.H. Auden
Every Friday local poets writing in English and Nepali gather at one of the oldest bookshop White Lotus Bookshops in Kupondole, Lalitpur. Founded by the renowned international poet Yuyutsu RD Sharma, this is longest running poetry reading series in the Kathmandu valley. Hundreds of Nepalese and international poets have come to the bookshop over a decade. Several literary movements have flourished in course of these readings. The event has been generously sponsored by the owner of White Lotus Book Shop, Shreejana Sharma since its early days.
The poetry scene is a mixture of poets of different ages and various literary styles. Over the years, however, there are some regulars readers. Shailendra Sakar and Yuyutsu Sharma jointly launched the literary movement like Kathya Kayakalpa, Content Metamorphosis that has shaped the current of Contemporary Nepali poetry. Over the years scores of senior Nepali poets and writers like Iswari Ballab, Tulasi Diwas, Manjul, Bimal Nibha, Gopal Parajuli, Kali Prasad Rijal, Sharad Pradhan, Murari Regmi, Purna Viram, Mani Thapa, Hari Adhikari, Jay Chancha, Bhupal Rai, Narayan Tiwari have read their works here.
Leonard Cohen
“Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash.”
Along with these, younger generation poets like Promod Snehi, Padma Gautam, Punya Gautam, Bishwa Sigdel, Shyam Rimal, Biplav Dhakal, Netra Atom, RM Dondol, Raj Kumar Baniya, Chetnath Dhamala, Tanka Uprety, Chunky Shrestha, Mahesh Regmi, Buddhi Sagar Chepain, Mani Lohani, Dilli Ram Neupane and others have made multiple appearances here.
S.T.Coleridge
I wish our clever young poets would remember my homely definitions of prose and poetry
Recently the place has also become a platform for Nepalese writers in English and several English Language poets like Rajendra Shrestha, Bhuwan Thapaliya, Arun Budhathoki, Echo Ghimire, Revigya Joshi, Tejendra Subbha, Sudha Sapkota and others have made their regular visits with their fresh works.
Well, write poetry, for God’s sake, it’s the only thing that matters.
– e. e. cummings
The main rule of the game is that the poet has to bring a fresh poem each time. The poem once read can’t find a place in these reading series.
At 3 pm the weekly meet starts with small chit-chat and getting to know each other. At least once in a month, the reading is theme-centered. Like last time, we had Monsoon poems. A week after, there will be a Food Poems Special reading.
Poetry is, at bottom, a criticism of life.
– Matthew Arnold
The pleasure of reciting and listening to poetry is to be in the presence of world traveler Yuyutsu Sharma is exciting.
In addition, what makes the event interesting is poets use styles ranging from haikus, free verse, slam poetry et al.
Poetry is like making a joke. If you get one word wrong at the end of a joke, you’ve lost the whole thing.
– W.S. Merwin
Come and join this longest and oldest running poetry event.
Join the reading on Facebook.
Here’s a poem Mule by the revered poet Yuyutsu Sharma that sums up the meetup:
Mules
On the great Tibetan
salt route they meet me again
old forsaken friends…
