Rachna Singh, Editor, The Wise Owl talks to Gopal Lahiri about his latest book 'Anemone Morning & Other Poems.'

Rachna Singh, Editor, The Wise Owl talks to Gopal Lahiri about his recent poetry collection Anemone Morning & Other Poems. Gopal Lahiri became the first author to be conferred the Jayanta Mahapatra National Award for Literature this year. Lahiri is a poet, critic, editor, and translator with 29 books to his name.

 

Thank you, Gopal, for taking time out to talk with The Wise Owl.

 

RS: Our readers would be eager to know the inspiration and the creative trigger for your poetry collection Anemone Morning & Other Poems.

 

GL: It is a collection of meditative, eco-critical, nature, real and surreal poems. In addition, there are Japanese form poems, like Gogyoshi, Haiku, Senryu ad Haibun. There are four segments in the book, namely, Resurrection, Dreamer’ search- Green Path, Mind’s Eye and Miscellany. These sections instigate a different kind of possibility in poetry and a more sustained of attention to language. With fresh images and striking metaphors, these poems create a poetic landscape. And they flow with a quiet ferocity urging the readers to join me in my poetic journey.

 

RS: ‘Anemone morning’ is a beautiful name for a lovely collection of poems. Our readers would be curious to know what made you pick this name for your collection.

 

GL: Anemone is a flowering plant and the morning signifies the first light. As Tagore writes in his poetic prose ‘Seeing,’ ‘the fully bloomed seeing hasn’t yet happened, we haven’t seen the abundant seeing. Yet every morning light comes from far afar and says, See..’

 

I wish my poems in this book can provide that morning light, that quietude and that fragrance, and the sense of connection. And it is the language, subtle and ingenious, that lies beneath my thoughts and delivers the results recorded in my emotional registers.

 

RS: You are an award-winning poet, writer, critic and editor. Tell us a little about your journey as a poet and the challenges you faced during the course of your creative journey.

 

GL: I can easily recall the reading of Tagore poems in my childhood and slowly I fell in love with poetry. In my early days fear was not any option and I was free to write. The answer was from my heart. I am a lover of nature and I have memories of writing poems on nature in school magazine. As it happens, I am more enchanted by the surroundings with its smell, sound, fissures and lineaments and their intricate relations with the people. It has been on for nearly forty years. I do not know when it started exactly but writing, especially poetry is something which is essential for me. Poems that I am creating are just part of me. I never fume in the lines and I feel comfortable with this.

 

We know a poet pays a great deal of attention on symbolism, the development of character, the use of allegory and myth but in my mind the real challenge is the relevance and I am always facing this challenge to reach a reader’s or listener’s ear, resulting in a unique and highly complex experience.

 

RS: Nature seems to play a significant role in your poetry, as also in your book ‘Anemone Morning & other poems.’ How do you incorporate elements of nature into your work, and what do they symbolize for you?

 

GL: The influence of nature is always there in my life since childhood and I still love that. It means so much in my poems. May be the wealth of reflections of nature in everyday life that I collect in my mind and translate later into words. Being an earth scientist, I must travel a lot and watch the life in realms of nature. May be that help me to break in if at all.

 

I do not know when it started but writing, especially poetry is something which is essential for me. I guess I love to watch and listen to the people in realms of beautiful earth- how the world is and how the world ought to be. Never really want to grab the readers by their frontal lobes and immediately snag their attention.

 

RS: Your poetry often traverses various locales, from serene landscapes to bustling urban environments. How do you capture the essence of these diverse settings in your work?

 

GL: In my thoughts, Poetry is a picturesque journey and I borrow the moments of pure soaring beauty from my surroundings to hit against the most ordinary in life. Then expand the bounds of connections that give us life. All these processes invite me to enjoy and it is good to recollect that we need one another, my soul and poetry in diverse settings.

 

Each small fragment of any city narrative is an answer hard-won. Still, piece by piece they come, until we are hovering on the edge of understanding, with the feeling that there is a door to revelation up ahead just starting to crack open. These stray thoughts and images that distils the filth and dust of the city but the tiny sparks are always there in my heart, in my mind,

 

I want to take my readers on a wonderful walk where a little rain is a downpour, where silence is a part of our essence, where a solitary mind is a chorus.

 

RS: Do you have a favourite city or place that you find most inspiring? Tell us a little about it.

 

GL: My favourite city is of course Kolkata and it is incidentally my birth place. It is undeniably a city of poets, the little rafts of refuge for me. The city is a perfect metaphor for its spiritual condition, its beautiful heritage, its furious rhythm, its geometry, and anguish. I love to explore all these- poems that exists in chaos, in movements, in conversation, in heritage or in resistance to the poetry itself. The images of the city in my mind are always vivid like an immersive canvass, a sketch that can never be erased. My poems on Kolkata invokes a sense, a feeling that distils the filth and dust of the city and draws a timeline that is unique for me.

 

Kolkata is always a home to many poets and writers- from beginning to end and a backdrop and inspiration for their works. It is a place of promise despite the many hurdles that the commoners face day in and day out. The city has a unique ability to

 

RS: Human relationships are a core aspect of your poetry. What aspects of human interaction do you find most compelling to explore?

 

GL: I find human relationship is very important in our life. The people and the surrounds are there who create the sound and silence. I observe, listen, and inhale the atoms and molecules of life. This portal into the past is unlocked by poetry alone.

 

I want to connect them to a larger vision of shared humanity, revealing history and heritage while granting insight into distinct values and conditions of the past.

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I love to watch and listen to the people in realms of beautiful earth, how the world is and how the world ought to be. Surely, it is not an extension of dreams but multitude of thoughts and given the opportunity, words and letters can create texture and rhythm and I feel that’s poetry.

 

RS: Many upcoming poets are a part of our readership. They would love to know how to hone their craft and evolve as good poets. What advice would you give them?

 

GL: My advice is to the upcoming poets and writers that you must read more of others works, develop a relationship with your subjects and in those relationships, you must able to identify expressions and nuances of creative writing. There is a sense of belonging in it and you must cultivate that. You must ask yourself can I be able to make it? It is an art form very frankly. Be evocative, thoughtful, lucid, and fluent. When I look around, I feel that many of us are interested to make short-cut and trying to be famous. We should not ignore our objectives of being a good and honest poet or writer.

 

 

RS: If I were to ask you to define yourself as a poet in three adjectives, what would they be and why?

 

GL: Humble, Serious and Imagist. I am a shy and reserved person by nature and I hardly go out shouting about my creations. I just allow everything to sink and settle inside. Poetry is always a serious task to me and I love those poems which linger for some time and fill my poetic landscape slowly but surely.

 

Thank you so much Gopal for talking to us about your creativity and your recent poetry collection. We wish you the very best in all your literary pursuits.