The estuary where the poetry meets its purpose - Lakshantha Athukorala

When the wave of thoughts breaks spraying foams of emotions while the trees grow spreading their tender leaves around, he questions the ability of a poet to stay still and calm holding one’s breath walking on barefoot with eyes closed. He also questions the status quo of the society to facilitate a better future. He questions the loopholes of the system, issues that have never been addressed and humanity in a broader scope. Yet they are not mere questions. They are poems filled with deep sense of love for humanity, meaning and its transcendence. His sharp poetic eye coupled with strong language skills create magnificent pieces of poetry to soothe the burning minds and souls with immense affection. He is none other than: Lakshantha Athukorala – The estuary where the poetry meets its purpose.

As a bud becomes a flower, a poetic silent whisper could become a cyclone of thoughts in the minds of readers. Moreover, it is hard to question the difference between a bud and a flower, when both are interconnected. So does his poetry. His Poetry is one-of-kind and its essence can never be replicated. It will keep growing in the garden of his soul to add fragrance, beauty and hope to our society.

What inspired you to become a poet?

My childhood provided me an immense space to read and learn literature. Being an ardent reader with an overdose of enthusiasm invariably paved the way to pen my thoughts while constantly filling my soul with happiness. Books were our family and the background where I was born and bred undeniably facilitated the budding poet in me. From the outsets, poetry has never left me alone and has been beside me all throughout, in a level where a life couldn’t have been imagined without such assistance. Amid of all the chaos of life, responsibilities and duties, poetry has been my mode of communication through which my ideology could be expressed and dissolve my emotions.

At first, my words got published on a newspaper in 1990, since then I have been constantly penning my thoughts. Yet there wasn’t any need of publishing a book. After many years of piled up poems on 2006 my first book: Amawake Sandak Simbimi (Kissing the new moon) was launched. The second was “Yati Wiyana” (Underwood) was critically acclaimed for its contextual importance in addressing the non-addressed, sub strata of our society. These were the pillars which inspired me be a poet and keep engaging in this literary journey.

Your poetry has never been the same and your boundaries have always expanded and evolved. What have been the reasons for this continuous expansion?

As far as I believe, observation is key to poetry. A good poet must also be a keen observer. When you are vigilant and aware about what happen around, you get many to ideas to write about. Out of all, only few will transform into poems and indeed their significance, the contextual importance and its essence of effectiveness would definitely be mattered. Observation fuels the taste buds of poetic feelings directing it to a poem. Experiences, imagination and language manure the feeling while enhancing the standard of the end product and the impact it can create in the readers’ minds would decide its effectiveness.

When it comes to evolution, it may be due to the perception and attitudinal change. With attaining age, you become much more mature in viewing the things around you and start gaining more awareness about the things you may have considered as seen but unseen, known but unknown. These emotions keep challenging and poems are the results of such emotional struggle.

Language: the most important ingredient for poetry, has been one of your core strengths. What are your thoughts?

Language is the instrument through which the essence of a feeling is transpired. As W.H. Auden once has said, “A poet is, before anything else, a person who is passionately in love with language”. Poetry lies on the ground of language and it is essential for its growth. My love for language and its constructs were enhanced with continuous reading, researching, experimenting and practicing. Primarily it is one of the facts that could be used to improve the standards of one’s poetry. Having said that none can deny the fact of talent which adds the icing to the cake. When talent blends with language poetry is created.

One of the phenomenal characteristics of your poetry is your capability in bringing an awe-inspiring essence to each and every poem irrespective of its nature or the incident. What is the secret?

Well, it is more of a technical aspect where the poet uses his creativity to generate a novel experience. This can only be facilitated when one is equipped with all relevant ingredients of poetry. Poetry must generate a novel experience to make the readers rethink and re question the ordinariness. It is pointless to reproduce the same with same essence. What matters is creativity. When creativity is enhanced with poet’s passion for literature, a novel experience can be created to ensure the end reader being facilitated. Though this is explained as such, in most of the cases this is spontaneous. With a blink of an eye, a poetic idea could hit your mind, and on a spur-of-the- moment an idea for great poem can be written. The idea can then be improved with other ingredients you possess hence the feeling of novelty can be created. One other most important fact which has directly led to such awe- inspiring essence would be my personal judgement towards my poems, where none of the poems would be released unless and until it makes myself as the poet happier and get the perfect marks of my satisfaction. When the poet itself can enjoy the product, invariably the reader would reach the level of their satisfaction.

Many of your anthologies have been acclaimed by reputed literary festivals. Don’t you think this creates a fence of expectations around you?

It is inevitable fact that people build up expectations on you. Yet as a poet who is in a constant need of experimenting different avenues of poetry, I may not be able to cater all the demands of my readership. This became quite evident with my first ever collection of short poems: “Hithagisse Nathak Mottu” (Buds in the bottom of heart) where it was constructively as well as deconstructively criticized based mainly on their expectations had over me. As a poet doesn’t practice any formation or a norm in writing poetry, I do believe poetry cannot be discriminated or rather ruled over based on generic norms of conventional practices.

Art is a field of emotions which nourishes the state of one’s mind with equanimity and intelligence.  The mode of art can be anything: a song, poem, painting etc. through which an idea can be communicated. The level of efficiency and effectiveness of the message depend on its creativity and it is preferred based on personal capacities, hence it can be considered as subjective. In a subjective context objectivity is challenged. Especially, when the creativity blends with experiences and imagination difference shades are created for the same poem. In such a context the validity of judging one’s creativity based on single and subjective point of view is pointless.

Through most of your poems, you have been succeeded in questioning the reader in a way leading him\her to an emotional upheaval to “be the change” rather make the change. This is one of the progressive points that is quite often being seen and acclaimed. Can we know the purpose behind this strategy?

Life is not always beautiful, so do the things around. Undoubtedly in a society where individualism and ego-centric life policies are being promoted, our lives and the bubbles we are living in get hurt and stuck whenever the pressures of outside do exchange with each other. In such a context, a change cannot be made instead we can be the change. In my poetry collection:” EE” – Arrows; I tried to shoot the arrows of my poetic feelings to break their barriers and think beyond what they see. Bringing the society into light cannot be done single-handedly. Hence both parties should align with each other to make the change by being the change.

There’s no secret that artists do inspire each other, yet how does this source of inspiration unfold in an art form like poetry?

It’s quite a common fact that poets speak to each other in poetry, irrespective of their differences. Certainly a poet can learn a lot by reading and practicing the craft the same ways his or her predecessors practiced their craft, and this is often done by imitation. The problem lies in the intention. Mostly this can be seen where somebody is in an urgency to create a name or to grab the public eye, as far as I believe that is high time for a poet to re-think of his\her purpose. No point replicating the same when there’s an enormous talent beneath. Nobody could be somebody by doing the same that somebody has done. Novelty is facilitated by creativity and value of such product is priceless.

You are a lawyer by profession, a cricketer by choice and a poet in born. How do you manage to secure your poetic soul?

 Well, as I have said before, it has never left me alone. It has always been there by my side and it has kept growing with age. I love what I do and do it in my fullest capacity hence nothing has become a burden so far. There were and will be times that I couldn’t pay much attention on the areas which aren’t in align with my day to day work. Yet that doesn’t mean my love for poetry will be denied. It will be with me forever.

Once Wordsworth said, "An accurate taste in poetry, and in all other arts...is an acquired taste, which can only be produced by severe thought, and a long continued intercourse with the best models of composition”. How do you link poetic sensibility with his statement?

Poetic sensibility is a broader concept, which needs to be linked with poetry to give the truest essence of a particular poem. Yet this doesn’t mean one must be vulnerable or fragile in facing incidents of life. It requests to be more open-minded and be conscious. This is very clearly explained in one of my poems in my latest book: Samahara Kamatahan (Some elementary instructions) where the pleasure lies in travail and happiness in sorrow. 

There’s no point of applying poetic sensitivity to state the same thing over and over again, rather I prefer to be progressive and enlighten the reader through adding some ray of hope. As poets our poetic sensibility should be applied to address the unaddressed and share the non-shared. Hence none can deny the importance of social responsibility of poetry because poetic sensibility must be in align with its social responsibility.

Apart from that, almost all the poems: “Sumithure oba dahawale wasi podak sei” (My beloved friend; as droplets of rain in the daytime), “Mali” were written based on incidents which brought me to an emotional upheaval. Poems are written based on its level of impact that can make in my mind regardless of its victim. Hence it is true that sensitivity of a poet in being sensible at social issues is important and it drives us to keep engage in writing poems because it is the only way through which we can release our stress. Furthermore, I also believe those invariably are required to bring a novel experience to the readers.

In Sri Lanka, poetry under romantic genre hardly gets its deserved appreciation. Especially the general perception of poetry based on love and romance have been constantly misleading. In such a context don’t you think poetry lovers expect a special collection of poems written on love from you?

Almost every poet has started his\her poetry journey with romantic poems. Love is an emotion which deeply absorbs and connects two individuals. Yet when it comes to poetry and songs there’s a huge discrimination irrespective of its lyrical or poetic value. The irony of songs based on love being felicitated highly and poems on love being considered as immature are hardly fathomable. This isn’t the case in other countries, especially in western countries. The situation in here is totally different. Poems based on love is considered as cheap and invariably it affects the quality of life. This ideology has to be changed and proper level of appreciation and acceptance should be made. So yes, there is still a chance and I am looking forward to, although I don’t know when and where.

Your latest anthology of poems: “Samahara Kamatahan” has been nominated for the first ever Rajatha Pusthaka literary awards. And It is also true that awards aren’t something new to you. Are awards bringing happiness or a responsibility? What are your thoughts?

Indeed, it is a pleasure. As far as I think, proper recognition and appraisal are much needed to broaden the bars of standards of whichever industry it may be. Awards also provide an opportunity to reach more readers where the message of an author can be conveyed in an efficient manner. It awakens the society and pave the way to make the change the author or the poet wishes. Having said that one must also understand the fact that it isn’t the end. A trophy cannot bring happiness unless it is directed to a better cause. Further, one must also understand being the best isn’t what only matters but doing the best and being honest to your work.

Finally, how would you prefer to be remembered?

In short, “as a poet”: I would say. Though we have a little space to make a change, I would prefer to be remembered as a poet who made an impact to at least one or two lives. That would be sufficient.