Poetry is a medium that cuts across barriers of religion, caste and community to bring people together and is an effective tool to convey the truth, Kendra Sahitya Akademi Central Committee member K. Siva Reddy said on Saturday.
Speaking at the inaugural session of Amaravati Poetic Prism 2020, the sixth international multilingual poets’ meet on Saturday, Mr. Siva Reddy — a recipient of honours like the Saraswati Samman and Kabir Samman — said such events help kindle a spirit of harmony and peace.
The two-day poets’ meet is organised by the Cultural Centre of Vijayawada and Amaravati (CCVA), in association with the Centre of Excellence for Studies in Classical Telugu (CIIL), Department of Language and Culture, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. The event, organised in virtual mode, saw participation of 162 poets from 32 countries representing 40 languages.
Around 75 poets from across the country and abroad, read out their poems in different languages in seven sessions that were presided over by Sivashankar Papineni, D. Srinivasacharya, D. Viziabhaskar, Vasant Kumar Perla, Rolf Ishwar Doppenberg and Sikhamani Sanjeeva Rao.
The theme being ‘Environment and Ecology’, participants weaved their thoughts around the beauty of nature and the destruction brought upon it by mankind.
Some chose to describe the magnitude of the problem, while others voiced their concerns over the future. A few suggested solutions. CCVA chairperson Y. Tejaswini presided over the inaugural session while chairman of Gujarat Sahitya Akademi Padma Shri Vishnu Pandya, former Vice Chancellor, Potti Sriramulu Telugu University N. Gopi, recipient of the Kendra Sahitya Akademi Award Papineni Sivasankar, Project Director of the Centre of Excellence for Studies in Classical Telugu (CIIL) D. Muniratnam Naidu, Director of the Department of Language and Culture, Telangana, Mamidi Hari Krishna, and convener of the poets' meet Deerghasi Vizaibhaskar participated.
