"OVERHEAD POETRY"

POEMS

WITH

SRI AUROBINDO'S COMMENTS

Edited by

K. D. SETHNA

SRI AU ROBINDO INTERNATIONAL

CENTRE OF EDUCATION

PONDICHERRY

First Edition : March 1972

March 1972

© Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust 1972

Published by Sri Aurobindo International

Centre of Education, Pondicherry

Printed at Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press,

Pondicherry

PRINTED IN INDIA

PUBLISHERS' NOTE

As Sri Aurobindo's work in various fields comes more and more to be known, an increasing number of questions are put by earnest seekers. In the sphere of Yoga, we are most often asked the meanings of the terms "Supermind" and "Transformation". In the realm of literature, the recurrent query is: "What is 'Overhead Poetry'?"

We have invited Mr. K. D. Sethna of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and International Centre of Education to provide an answer with a mass of writing he has directly discussed with Sri Aurobindo through correspondence. After some natural hesitation because a fair amount of the answer would have a personal frame of reference, he has agreed to set aside his scruples in the larger interests of the literary public.

Mr. Sethna once remarked to his students in a light vein: "Overhead poetry is poetry that passes over everybody's head!" It often does at first, but it has a special way of doing it, as he has briefly explained in his Editor's Introduction and as his compilation will elucidate in concrete detail. This way has to be marked off from the zigzag of ambiguities and obscurities which makes a lot of modern verse frustrating in spite of being provocative. One may consider this way to be, in the words of the old mystics, "dark with excess of light". But it is possible to train the eye to the ultra-brightness, discern several shades of it and ultimately see the world and ourselves and the Great Unknown more deeply and clearly.

We are happy to state that the Government of India has given a grant to meet the cost of publishing Mr. Sethna's book.

22-3-1972