Luanda - The director of Mayamba Editora, Arlindo Isabel, Thursday in Luanda, deplored the low level of investment in the publishing of poetic literary works, compared to fiction, due to the fact that people are looking less for books of this genre.
In an interview with ANGOP, on the occasion of World Poetry Day, which is being celebrated today, he explained the decrease in demand for poetry books in bookshops as being at the root.
He said that the low demand is linked to the poor preparation and knowledge of the language on the part of readers to understand the messages conveyed by poets.
For this reason, the academic also believes that mastering the language is fundamental to understanding poetry.
"At the rate the world is going, there is very little in-depth knowledge of the language and poetry is in a dimension that requires other preparation," he said.
In his opinion, this is because "people today are probably not going to bother with things that take a lot of work, because they are immediate".
For example, he said that what is stated in a piece of fictional narrative, often in a paragraph, in poetry can be said in a word or a very short sentence.
With regard to the way poetry is made today, compared to the past, he considered it impossible to pinpoint a better period, because each context generates good and bad poets, as well as good and bad tastes.
However, he warned that "art is that which survives and transcends the boundaries of time, both in content and form, and whenever there is quality or a sense of beauty to summarise what we call art, that is poetry".
The writer pointed to more exhibitions aimed at poetry, debates in the media and the creation of more reading spaces as ways to promote this literary genre.
He also pointed to the organisation of poetry performances in various places, especially schools, to promote and transmit to children a taste for appreciating and producing poetry.
In turn, writer José Luís Mendonça believes that poetry in the past had a musicality that came from rhyming, which is now lost due to new trends and tendencies.
According to the poet, not everything published with poetic intent is poetry. And nowadays, there is a "tremendous" illusion among older and younger authors that they are writing poetry.
Regarding the spread of poetry, he said that this is, in principle, a legitimate intention, but one must take into account each person's vocation.
"Each person has their own experience, their own way of breathing the universe, so the massification of any genre of art requires a prior identification of the person's tendencies," he explained.
World Poetry Day is celebrated every year on 21 March. The date was created at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) 30th General Conference on 16 November 1999 to honour poetry, promote the diversity of languages and intensify exchanges between cultures.
World Poetry Day celebrates the diversity of dialogue, the free creation of ideas through words, creativity and innovation.
CPM/ART/MRA/jmc
