TALKING BOOKS

Rachna Singh, Editor, The Wise Owl talks to Sanjeev Sethi about his book 'Legato Without a Lisp'

Talking Books
With Sanjeev Sethi
Dr Rachna Singh, Editor, The Wise Owl talks to Sanjeev Sethi, about his recent book, ‘Legato without a Lisp.’ Sanjeev Sethi is an award winning poet, who has authored eight books of poetry. Over thirty-five countries have published his poetry. His poems have found a home in more than 500 journals, anthologies, and online literary venues. Sethi lives in Mumbai.
Thank you Sanjeev for talking to The Wise Owl
RS: Congratulations on the release of Legato without a Lisp! In this collection, you celebrate your sixtieth season. How has this milestone influenced your poetry, and how does it reflect in your writing?
SS: Thank you, Rachna, for the conversation. Poetry is an integral part of my life, and I have been pursuing it with all seriousness at my command for the last four decades. With time, the poetic instinct ripens, resulting in a certain richness in theme and technique. That is how it is with the sixtieth season as well.
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RS: The title, Legato without a Lisp, suggests a sense of continuity and fluency. Could you elaborate on the significance behind this intriguing title and how it connects with the themes of the collection?
SS: In what I call the second phase of my poetic career, I have been in an aggressive creative mode for more than a decade, in which I indite almost every day, so when the title hit me, it seemed appropriate—‘legato’ for the flow and ‘without a lisp’ as symbolic of no impediment to the creative process.
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RS: In this collection, you adopt a "studied approach," carefully selecting your words and weighing notions from your journey. How does this deliberative process compare to your previous works?
SS: You have taken these quotes from the back cover; this is the phraseology of the publishers' marketing department. Any poem for public consumption goes through the winnowing process. And this is true for every published poem of mine. The difference, if any, is that I am more equipped now than in my earlier airings. But from my side, I tried my best even then.
RS: You confront issues as they strike you in this collection. Are there any specific themes or personal experiences that have been central to shaping the poems in Legato without a Lisp?
SS: I see poetry as an extension of myself. I seek it in most settings. Poems are my response to stimuli. They help me make sense of my situation. I wrestle for nuance by wrenching words and woes. Some poems dip into my emotional deposits; others document the demotic. The attempt is to arrest a moment of truth in a tasteful manner. Poetry is my engagement with existence. In short, whatever touches me reaches my poetic radar.
RS: Your poetics have been described as sometimes "mercurial" and at other times "manicured." How do you balance these contrasting styles in your work, and what drives the shifts between them?
SS: Poetry is an aggregate of the emotional landscape. So, some poems are born when I am in a tumultuous phase, while others celebrate the cool and collected part of my personality.
RS: With this being your eighth collection, how do you see your poetic voice evolving over the years? What changes in your perspective have influenced this latest work?
SS: I find myself sharper with technique and, at a gut level, more confident of my poetic choices and more decisive with my editing patterns. Other than that, each poem is a struggle. Even after publishing more than 2100 poems across the globe in a four-decade-long career, I am as unsure of a new poem as I was as a rookie. Some things never change.
RS: What role does reality and reflection play in this collection? How do you blend personal introspection with broader societal observations?
SS: The creative process occurs in a cauldron; parts of what you mentioned marinate and create the poetic nosh.
RS: Can you share any particular poem from this collection that holds special meaning for you, and why?
SS: Rachna, I will go with the cliché: They are my poetic babies. I can’t choose one over another. (Laughs)
RS: Looking back at your body of work, what do you hope readers take away from Legato without a Lisp, and how would you like it to be remembered in the broader context of your career?
SS: If you are an aficionado of contemporary poetry in English, you will find some poems that resonate with you. As with any book of poetry, the aim is to share with the readers slices of one's life, colored and curated with poetic liberties, hoping it adds something to them. At the least, one aspires to open a window that triggers a thought process or gets the philomuse to smile as they connect with an idea or emotion.
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Thank you so much for talking to The Wise Owl about your beautiful poetry collection. We wish you the best in all your future literary endeavours.
About Sanjeev Sethi


Sanjeev Sethi has authored eight books of poetry. Legato without a Lisp is his latest (CLASSIX, an imprint of Hawakal, New Delhi, September 2024). Over thirty-five countries have published his poetry. His poems have found a home in more than 500 journals, anthologies, and online literary venues. He edited Dreich Planet #1 India, an anthology for Hybriddreich, Scotland, in December 2022. He is the joint winner of the Full Fat Collection Competition-Deux, organized by Hedgehog Poetry Press, UK. Sethi is in the top 10 of the erbacce-prize 2021. He is the recipient of the Ethos Literary Award 2022. In 2023, he won the First Prize in a Poetry Competition by the National Defence Academy, Pune. He was conferred the 2023 Setu Award for Excellence. He lives in Mumbai, India.
About Rachna Singh
