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Pursuing the path of poetry

Diploma Programme (DP) graduate Aviral shares how he developed a passion for poetry during his IB education and reflects on his learning journey to hone his craft and contribute meaningfully through art.

Pursuing the path of poetry

By Aviral

Writing, if done right, can do wonders. Taking the IB programme helped me hone my writing skills. Although I was writing from a very young age, IB helped me develop the right technique, which helped me shape my thoughts and emotions eloquently. This was an excellent impetus for launching my debut book, The Canvas.

I took a year off after completing my IB diploma. By then, I had over a hundred poems in my artistic attic. A desire to be productive in my spare time led me to revisit and edit most of the poems. I also happened to attend a book publishing workshop around that time. Serendipity as one may call it; I decided to be a published poet.

I believe that poetry, as an art, has been undervalued. Most of the people regard it as the aftermath of an emotional or saddening experience. What people don’t understand is that poetry symbolizes a lot of other things aside from love and heartbreaks. Its rhythmic scheme and peculiar tone can motivate people to challenge and strive for their greater self. It can intrigue people to explore the uncharted realms of themselves and the world around them. Poetry is a way of being; a way of being that tells you that in life, not everything is supposed to rhyme or fit together. But that does not mean that life has lost its harmony.

The Canvas uses a similar approach. It aims to paint a unique picture in each of its readers’ mind. Through the course of six chapters, Existential Seeking, Faith, Blasphemy, Nostalgia, Love and Salvation, it plays around with the meaning of life. Every piece, though belongs to a different theme and sustains its individuality, eventually links up and takes you on a journey embodying mixed emotions, feelings and motives. What links all the prose and poems are a series of six different love letters to Sanity.

The Canvas went on to become an Amazon bestseller in India. To increase the reach of my work, I decided to enhance my stagecraft and get into slam poetry. I started reaching out to my potential audience and gave them a sneak peek of what I do and write about. Luckily, I was in Berlin at that time and became affiliated with a local group of poets, Berlin Spoken Word (BSW), who used to organize open mic events in the basement of a bar every week.

Being in Berlin, the melting pot of art and culture, allowed me to interact with people from all walks of life. While my words moved some, others remain unimpressed. Some were confused by the things my poetry was talking about. This was a great insight into the world of art. I was fascinated by how the same poem can evoke different emotions for various people. Moreover, when I started doing slam poetry, I realized that the tone and style of my delivery influenced the impact of my words and the way my audience responded to it. Flashbacks to my IB’s internal assessment (IA) was a common phenomenon in my initial journey of becoming a slam poet.

“I was fascinated by how the same poem can evoke different emotions for various people”.

To soak the maximum amount of knowledge in a minimum amount of time, I offered to work for BSW as an intern. My ‘bosses’, Mary Vlasuk and Naniso Tswai, acted more like friends and mentors and were kind enough to allow me to promote and sell my book with their merchandise. I also used to get five minutes in each open mic. Everyone there was amiable and helpful and used to give me constructive feedback on my poetry.

All in all, it was a great experience to work as a slam poet in Berlin. Not only was I able to monetize my craft, but I also got to experience the life of an artist in the Art Capital of the world. This also enhanced my understanding of poetry. I realized that poetry flickers the itinerant minds of its audience, allowing them to unfurl the poem in their imagination. It also led me to meet my current mentor, Mark Mace Smith, who is a UK-based spoken word poet.

Mark was kind enough to go over the draft of my second book, Journey Of A Shallow Man. The book is written in the form of prose poetry fables. It is based around a lonely man who is in conversation with the Sky.

The Sky finds the human race intriguing and wishes to know:

the joys and miseries of being a human,

the life they lead

their reasons to sin,

 their never-ending greed,

 their desire to love,

 their longing to seek,

things that make them strong,

cravings that make them weak,

the cause behind their smile,

and everything else that makes them human.

In an attempt to understand humans, the Sky sends the man on a journey of self-realization. As the title suggests, the book is a shallow man’s journey who at the end of his pursuit finds out that he is not a shallow man after all!

I am trying to find the right publisher for Journey Of A Shallow Man. Currently, the book is under the review of Andrews McMeel Publishing house and Penguin Random House. Hopefully, the book will hit the markets soon!

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Aviral is a young poet. He started writing at the age of 15 and his passion for writing was inspired by all the wonderful people he met who bestowed him with some amazing experiences: The ones which ought to be penned down. Aviral graduated from the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (DP) in 2016. The poet works as a business intelligence intern in Berlin, where he is also working towards launching his second book. You can connect with him on LinkedIn and follow his poetry on Instagram.

To hear more from Diploma Programme (DP) graduates check out these IB programme stories. If you are an IB grad and want to share your story, write to us at alumni.relations@ibo.org. We appreciate your support in sharing IB stories and invite you to connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter Instagram and YouTube!

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