Reflections from the Heart: Anthology of 100 poems is a collection of poems by three poets – Bhaskar Bora, Merry Baruah and Shantanu Phukan. It is a collection of verses that has evolved out of the emotions, passion, love and grief that the poets have gone through in their life journeys. Thumbprint NE caught up with one of the poets, MERRY BARUAH, an Associate Professor in the department of English, Cotton University to understand the nuances of this poetry collection
How did this anthology come about?
Ans: Actually, the pandemic set us thinking – about ourselves, our lives, others’ lives – the sights and sounds that seemed to emerge in context of lives around us and life in general against the pandemic that shook the world. I used to scribble, shared my scribblings with a few friends, and especially with my teacher, colleague and eventually my co-author Santanu Phukan for feedback and he too shared his – and then to move away from the monotony of the lockdown, the bleakness of the outside world with its disease and death, we started writing – ‘a poem a day’ kind of, at times there were more than one – we just kept ourselves preoccupied, in another world which seemed to offer us a respite while allowing us to engage in a deeper manner with the larger question of life and its meaning! There were certain stock images, certain sensations, emotions which kept nudging till those came out in the form of expressions I would rather say and eventually took the form of these verses. Then we had Bhaskar who joined in this – sharing his poetry – and also Manu, from Kerala who guided us with the publication and editing of the anthology.
What are the backstories behind these poems?
Ans. When I started, it was just a random thought so to say, an emotion may be, a word at times…then gradually this process got streamlined in my thoughts, the outside world continued to provide the contexts – some were personal, others general, mundane, certain images from literature or myth for eg, I have one on Medusa, on Sylvia Plath who continues to enthral me– there were others that emerged from other works like the one from Great Expectations and so on! As I look back now, I feel there were more personal and emotional reasons that provoked my thoughts which were almost lost in the routine of life. The pandemic gave some time to contemplate – dabble with words now that other outside engagements were nil, one had exclusive moments to spend with oneself. The poem ‘The Fragrance of the Night Queen’ is dear to me. It was a friend’s personal experience that provided the raw material – but when I shared it with three different people, all related to the thought and emotion of the poem in their respective manners. This sort of was extremely reassuring – I was at peace with the outcome of my emotional response to a dear friend’s private story. Another piece in the anthology, ‘Backyard Tales’ draws from my memory of my maternal grandmother – whom I lost when I was around six …it was built on others’ memory of her, the cause of her death and so on!
What made three poets come together? Are there any common threads within these poems?
Ans. As mentioned earlier, sir and I started this practice – we kept writing for our own sake, for the sheer sense of contentment it gave us to be able to imagine through words and bring our imagination to life through words again! Then Bhaskar joined, we are batchmates – he was already writing his memoir, was in the process of publication…after which he insisted that we get together and think seriously about publishing our poems. He was also writing poetry which he shared; besides, we both were Cottonians – and Phukan was our teacher at Cotton. As I look back, it gives a sense of contentment that though we were all working from different physical and temporal realities, we worked as a team and yes, most of the time Bhaskar being the monitor – pushing us to meet the deadlines of compilation, editing etc. As for the common thread within these poems, I personally feel – it's our association with life in all its hues that each of us have tried to give expression to through these verses! The detailed nuances are for the readers to discern.
Do you think Bhaskar Bora's poems are different in the sense his life experiences are rather extraordinary?
Ans. Yes, absolutely! As a reader, I would look at them as expressions, extremely intimate and intense, kind of raw that moves one to the core of the heart. Again, personal experiences play an enriching role in allowing the speaker in these poems to engage with a richness of imagination that reflects a unique purity.
There are traces of both Western literature like that of Dicken's Miss Havisham and the legend of Sampaboti from Assamese folklore. How do you see these interpolations?
Ans. Being a student of literature and eventually a teacher in English, I was able to have access to western literature, certain understandings, ideas, ethos got embedded – it was just a matter of time – the pandemic brought certain ideas and images to life once again. So, Miss Havisham with her static time reappeared, in a personal context. Interestingly, Phukan wrote a poem on Joe Gargery contextualised within the contemporary scene. Amazing, how individual perspectives appear so nuanced – perhaps what one acquires as a reader from a text has a role to play in such intertextuality! The legend of Sampaboti provides a unique perspective – working with the story as source text, the poem develops into an unconventional piece altogether – it’s a very rich poem! Perhaps these interpolations allow one to look at texts from a renewed perspective, such attempts keep the stories alive, the texts journey into contemporary from the past and also open towards futurity – however, the appreciation finally rests on the reader!
How do you see the reflection on pain and death in these poems?
Ans. Death and pain is a part of our lived experience – the pandemic and the lockdown made these more vivid – the different dimensions of pain, the nuanced perspectives on death in such context – perhaps made one rather contemplative – at times, melancholy as well. In all three of us, there had been contemplation upon death and pain more than once – each of us with our personal experiences of them and our take on what was happening around us - seems it became inevitable that rumination on pain and death sneaked into our consciousness and got revealed in the form of verses that each of us were trying to write – in different shades.
Tell us more about your poem 'homemaker’
Ans: The image of a woman as the centre of her family, whose primary concern was the family – her daily routine, mundane seemingly, yet requiring so much of her efforts to be able to continue doing it with the same sense of passion and involvement – day in and day out – I was wondering what force kept her going? Was it love? What kind of love where she went on making spaces for everyone, always preoccupied with others around her – the struggle to keep everything perfect…all of these just floated some time till it took the shape of this poem!