Imtiaz Dharker

Imtiaz Dharker, a prominent poet and filmmaker awarded the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry, shares the deep connection she has with Louis MacNeice's poem 'Meeting Point.' She discusses its emotional impact, linking personal experiences to its imagery. The conversation touches on themes of love and loss, exploring how poetry captures life's transient moments. Dharker reflects on the interplay between poetry and film, and the importance of shared connections amidst chaos, culminating in a poignant reading of one of her own poems.

A love poem with a playful title that sounds like an ad from a travel agent unfolds into a poem about choosing to stay at home. Imtiaz Dharker’s husband died in the years between this poem’s setting and its publishing. The poem, too, moves from long lines across the page into shorter and shorter lines. In sensuality, locality, intimacy, and simplicity, this poem is all about the man she loved, and moves from noise to focus: “You Are / Here” its final lines assert.Imtiaz Dharker is a poet, artist and video film-maker. She was awarded the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry in 2014. Her poems are on the British GCSE and A Level English syllabus, and she reads with other poets at Poetry Live! events all over the country to more than 25,000 students a year. She has been Poet in Residence at Cambridge University Library, worked on a series of poems based on the Archives of St Paul’s Cathedral as well as projects across art forms in Leeds, Newcastle and Hull. She has had eleven solo exhibitions of drawings in India, London, New York and Hong Kong. She scripts and directs films, many of them for non-government organizations in India, working in the area of shelter, education and health for women and children.Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.

Award-winning poet Imtiaz Dharker explores the cultural and spiritual significance of sweeping in various cultures. From meditation to historical mythology, the podcast delves into sweeping traditions worldwide, the symbolism of brooms as female objects, and the pride taken in the act of cleaning. An intriguing glimpse into the past reveals a 2,000-year-old broom handle found in China, highlighting the enduring craftsmanship of simple objects.