By Azera Rahman, IANS

New Delhi : Words which linger on in your ears, lines which haunt you long after they have been said, emotions which are overpowering and evocative - the charming world of poetry, which had lost its following to contemporary music such as rock and pop, is on the path to revival.

A recent spurt in poetry readings in the Indian capital, attended by people of all age groups, has brought back a ray of hope to all poets.

Delhi Poetree, a poetry society, brings together more than 50 poets who meet to share their thoughts, views and feelings with one another. Most lead different professional lives, but a common thread of poetry holds them together.

Manjul Bajaj, an environmental economist and a poet, said she is a regular at the poetry readings. "We have these readings every week, 18 days a month, when we come together at a pre-decided venue and read out our pieces in front of everyone.

"It's been a year since the society was formed and there's increased participation with each passing session. And why not? This is a golden opportunity to do something which we genuinely enjoy but have not had the chance to do for a long time," said Bajaj.

Agreed Parul Chant, another poet. A media professional, Chant said she never fails to miss any of the poetry sessions. "It's a platform to meet like-minded people where you don't have the same mundane discussions on the professional and career front.

"Here you meet people cutting across all ages and professions, laying down their guards and talking about music and poetry with a similar passion. No wonder such poetry sessions are attracting greater participation," she said.

Karthika V.K., publisher and chief editor of Harper Collins India, strongly believes that poetry is not on its way out.

"Poetry will always have a niche readership, but that readership is a dedicated one, and is unlikely to lose interest," Karthika told IANS.

Amit Dahiyabadshah, president of Delhi Poetree, is of the opinion that the art of poetry had never died to be revived. "It sure had lost its great fan following to other forms of music, but that doesn't mean that its magic had ceased. No one can escape the spell of poetry and the greater participation in any poetry reading anywhere just goes on to prove this," he said.

"I have started organising 18 nights of poetry reading in a month and now my aim is to make it 30 nights," he added.

But although poetry is gaining momentum, there are still very few takers when it comes to books on poetry. Because of the lack of money and recognition for their work, no one wants to take it up professionally.

H.K. Kaul, president of The Poetry Society (TPS), which has more than 1,000 members, said the main problem Indian poets face is of distribution of their published work throughout the country, if it gets published at all.

However, Penguin India has a different take on this.

"Poetry has a niche audience and it is a miracle if a poetry collection has more than 1,000 copies sold. Despite this, we at Penguin religiously publish two books on poetry every year - one an anthology and the other an independent work of a poet. This is our way of giving back to the literary audience whatever they give us," Thomas Abraham, chief executive officer and president of Penguin India, told IANS.

To attract more readers, Karthika says, booksellers and distributors need to be galvanised. "Things will improve in terms of sales once they start displaying titles more prominently and attracting customers.

"For this to happen, a few titles have to make it big, in terms of media interest, marketing layout, and perhaps an international award or two - all the factors that made it possible for fiction written in English to make the leap from small and localized to high-profile and globally marketed products," she said.

Kaul, on the other hand, suggests that the government should step in to make poetry more popular.

"There should be a poetry movement for peace and development whereby grassroot poets are encouraged by the government to express the problems and issues in their language and voice the opinion of the people," he said.

(Azera Rahman can be contacted at azera.p@ians.in)