THE FOLLOWING POEM BY SURABHI NAIK FROM KARWAR WON THE FIRST PRIZE IN WINGWORD POETRY PRIZE 2023.
made me insecure
about words.
It was always - Drawings before Words.
Inside, what are lines without life, I thought. But
the obedient rebel that I was, I complied.
So I made 'drawings'. I drew in straight lines
and measured curves, and careful thinnesses
of pencil strokes.
My Architectural Education had no time to waste
on my misshapen wilderness. It taught me that using
words to build my worlds was Unacceptable.
Untoward.
It was always - drafting the drawings.
Never, drawing the drawings.
So I was careful not to stray too far from the instrument.
Knowing I was at least one instrument too heavy.
My Architectural Education taught me about Beauty,
the kind that was immortalized in 'text'books made of
lustrous paper, erudite sentences and privileged men.
It was always - SomethingNewSomethingUnique but
within reason.
So I stepped in from the sidewalk
and marched in the army.
A Left. then Right. then Left.
One of the first things I remember conjuring
out of thin air was a poem about trees.
One of the first things I remember drawing
was a portrait of a famous man with a french beard
in a blue studio with blue lights calling the screen
'computerji'.
And he was just as blue if not bluer in the
scrawny scratches of my mom's blue ball-point pen.
And so, the words had to spill, right? Somewhere.
Like the streams that erode their way into the ocean.
About the poet:
Born and raised in the Konkan region of India, Surabhi Naik is a poet, designer and story gatherer. She is interested in poetry as a tool for thought, documentary and transmedia expression. Her work centers on media design and storytelling-based collaborations with artists, social impact entrepreneurs, cultural and educational institutions to facilitate creative expression of community-based narratives both in her hometown of Karwar, India and New York City.
She is an alumnus of The New School of Media Studies MA Graduate Program, New York City where she was a recipient of the Provost’s scholarship. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture from Visveswaraya Technological University Belagavi and an MA in English from IGNOU, New Delhi.
She is a founding member of the transcontinental gLiTCh artists collective and Alotnesse studio. Her documentary work was showcased in Verizon's 5G EdTech Accelerator 2019 and her design work has been exhibited at eminent forums such as National Awards for Excellence in Architecture and Charles Correa Gold Medal. Her professional affiliations have included New York City based organizations like Culture Push, Works on Water, Equity Design Inc and Parsons School of Design as well as Urban Design Research Institute Mumbai and Council of Architecture India.