Poetry in Motion: Poets narrate Their 'Poems on the Move' at SAF 2024

Poets read out poetry in near-guerilla-like fashion in festival shuttles, and regaled co-passengers as part of ‘Poems on the Move’ at the recently concluded Serendipity Arts Festival 2024.

Poetry hitched a ride along at the recently concluded Serendipity Arts Festival 2024, with young poets armed with poetry, who stepped onboard festival shuttles travelling between festival venues and regaled passengers with quick, unexpected bursts of poems.

Conceived as part of the festival's special programming under the 'Poems on the Move' project, curated by Goa-based writer, poet Salil Chaturvedi and Delhi-based artist duo Jiten Thukral & Sumir Tagra, the special guerilla-styled poetry project, was aimed at creating unique, transient spaces where individuals come together in unexpected moments of wonder, reshaping how we perceive both poetry and the urban journey, while also driving home the significance of a pause in fastpaced urban environments.

"Poetry brings a pause. Even if it's bad poetry, it brings a (sense of) pause. Because you need to be in a certain mood or stop and engage with it. As you can see in the hustle and bustle, you do need to stop and reflect," said Chaturvedi, an acclaimed poet himself.

According to Thukral, through 'Poems on the Move' "we wanted the most mundane journey of sitting in a cab to be the most memorable, in a way that these 5 minutes of your life can be seen as slowing down."

Goan-origin poets, namely Asavari Gurav, Deepali Sutar, Mamata Verlekar, and Rochelle D'Silva joined forces with Rochelle Potkar, Anamika Joshi and Darshan Singh Grewal, for the special project.

And the reaction from their audiences, copassengers in festival shuttles, was enjoyable for both the poet and the passengers.

"People thoroughly enjoyed listening to the poems and appreciated the intimate nature of the conversation. Some even shared their poems with me, making this exchange a truly special and memorable experience," Verlekar said.

"There have been instances where someone has sat in (the shuttle) and didn’t want to listen to poetry. But, then at the end of it, they didn't want to leave. So, I've had people who have taken that journey to Nagalli and come back to Old GMC Complex with me to listen to more poetry," said D'Silva.

'Poems on the Move' presented an intimate and experimental poetic encounter that turned a quintessentially mundane urban experience—a cab ride—into a journey of poetic discovery and the presence of local Goan poets who knew the lay of the land helped, says co-curator Tagra.

"Most of our poets are local; they know Goa; they know how to navigate," he concluded