KOCHI: Vice-chairman of Vyloppilli Samskrithi Bhavan, Vinod Vysakhi regularly conducts ‘Samskrithi’, a platform for poets to share their creations with the public. Vinod is a poet himself. His poems dwell on the social injustices faced by the marginalised sections of the society and have a certain rhythm. Vinod had spent his childhood in Karumkulam Panchayat, Puthiyathura, listening to the sound of waves and songs of fishermen.
“Ayyipillai aashan and Aiyyanapillai aashan who lived five kilometres from our house would sing in a particular rhythm using the musical instrument chandravalayam. Their songs gave my poetry a rhythm that can be very much associated to the rhythm of the waves,” he says.‘Thee Pidicha Thoku’, one of Vinod’s poems talks about refugee camps and the Pulwama terror attack. An admirer of Gulzar’s poems, Vinod says: “We, poets, need to write about India without fear”.
‘Mazhaeriyum Kalam’ (2007), his first poem, talks about the exploitation of nature, agricultural loss and a woman’s life in Kerala. The poem also won the Yuvadhara Puraskaram in the year of its release. ‘Kaidamel Pacha’, a collection of poems published in 2015, talked about conserving nature.
“A poet should be able to enjoy nature and feel its pain,” Vinod says. ‘Aal Marangal’, another work in the collection ‘Kaidamel Pacha’ is a tribute to Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and E M S Namboodiripad. Vinod expressed his fear about a time when nature will vanish from the earth. “Animals, birds and flowers that we see in nature give us strength.
There will come a time when this nature will go and with that, the folk songs and stories will all disappear. We will turn into a mechanised society” he said.Vinod also wrote poems for children, his poem ‘Olapukkal’ received the award for the Best Poem from Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in 2018. The work described how a group of children fought off people with weapons made of coconut leaves to protect the hills. Presently Vinod is working on a poem which is a tribute to his mother who passed away a year ago. Vinod is also the state secretary of Purogamana Kala Sahitya Sangam.