CHENNAI:I believe that we are not only a part of the universe. We are the universe itself. We only need to pause and look...stop and listen to life that throbs around us, within us,” says Anju Kishore, who recently launched her debut book ...and I Stop to Listen.
The idea of her collection of poetry, she says, is to experience the very essence of this energy and its beauty. “This idea has been expressed as simple and relatable poetry through nature,” she shares.
Nature has been described with many similes and metaphors. It has been compared with life and relationships. “If my poems come to mind when my readers pause to observe nature, then my book would have served its purpose,” she says.
Anju dabbled with poetry even as a child. But, the reason that prompted her to write a book is different. “As an adult, it all began during the Syrian civil war when the newspaper was awash with pictures of death and destruction. I was deeply moved by the images of children — frightened, orphaned, injured, dead. Did they deserve this kind of childhood? Weren’t they meant to play, read books, be put to sleep by their parents and not to be woken up by shelling, and maimed by bombs? This anguish found expression in poetry,” she asserts.
Quoting from her first poem, Being a War Child, in which a child from a war zone struggles to make sense of the madness around him, she explains the transitional phase between war and love in the book. “What questions I ask, what answers I seek. While children elsewhere have books to read...Where music floats under starlit skies. And mothers sing their babies to sleep…” she reads.
Urged by some of her friends, she began to dream of a book that would reach more people and bring a “small yet beautiful change in their lives”. “I was posting my poems on Facebook and appreciation from my friends was encouraging. I saw my poetry serving its purpose in this small circle,” she says.
“Sivakumar Ambalapuzha who is an award-winning poet in Malayalam noticed my poetry and urged me to publish them. I am privileged to have my book graced with an introduction by noted poet in English Ravi Shanker,” she says.
The book is illustrated and also has pictures which have been clicked by her daughters and her husband. “The illustrations were my husband’s idea. My Facebook posts went with a suitable picture. So he suggested we do the same in the book. Plus, since my daughters are good at art we requested them to pitch in too. They were happy to do that in spite of their busy school schedules. This makes the book all the more special for me,”she shares.
Poetry will always be an important part of Anju’s writings. “Good poetry has the unique ability to explore depths and lay out facts and feelings with astonishing clarity. The world needs good poetry. We need its clarity of thought, its beauty of expression, and the understanding it brings about,” shares the homemaker-cum-author who draws inspiration from the works of Rumi, Rabindranath Tagore, William Wordsworth, Ruskin bond, Leo Tolstoy, and William Dalrymple.
She writes poetry as she cooks, dries clothes and while walking to the grocer. “I quickly type out the lines in the memo of my phone to be edited later or just leave it as they had come to me. I don’t make time to sit down with an intention to write. It simply happens,”she adds.
(The book is available on amazon.in)