“I am the Poem”: In Conversation with Sanjeev Sethi,
acclaimed poet and winner of the National Defence Academy poetry contest
Sanjeev Sethi |
“It is like a part of my childhood has crawled back to
me,” reminisces Sanjeev Sethi on a warm Sunday evening as he speaks of his
recent win at the National Defence Academy poetry contest. I recall his lines
in “Name” (This Summer and That Summer, Bloomsbury 2015): “Nanu. That is
the real me. / Sanjeev is the frontal / part of my existence. / When you
attach Sethi to it, / you are adding / the burden of many births.”
The literary community has known Sethi as an acclaimed
poet with the kind of vocabulary that would put native English speakers to
shame. Those who have spent evenings amidst his oeuvre, diving in instead of
hovering above his verses, will inevitably smile at his wit and playfulness effortlessly woven into his poems which toy
with everything caught between emotions and personal philosophies. Sethi’s work
is like a river gushing down the Himalayas, seeking to both reveal and hide
him, of which he muses: “Verisimilitude is ok. / Who wants all the truth?” (“In
Twos”, Wrappings in Bespoke, Hedgehog Press 2022)
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Tejaswinee Roychowdhury |
If I were to describe him at the outset, I’d say Sethi
is a precise conversationalist and a fine listener—a rare combination, if you
ask me. And it is this that inevitably makes him one of the finest poets
of our times.
But there is more to Sethi than meets the eye.
As I dive deeper into conversation with him, I realise
Sethi has found and mastered his ikigai, the Japanese idea that one
finds happiness and peace when they are aligned with their life’s purpose,
which can be the simplest of things—for Sethi, that purpose is poetry. He
writes aptly in Shangri-La (This Summer and That Summer, Bloomsbury 2015): “When
words complete / all incompletion. / This is not vanity. It is bliss.”
Sanjeev Sethi has authored seven books of poetry. His
latest is Wrappings in Bespoke (The Hedgehog Poetry Press, UK, August
2022). He has been published in over thirty countries. His poems have found a
home in more than 400 journals, anthologies, and online literary venues. He
edited Dreich Planet #1, for Hybriddreich, Scotland, in December 2022.
He is the joint winner of the Full Fat Collection Competition-Deux, organized
by The Hedgehog Poetry Press, UK. In 2023, he won the First Prize in a Poetry
Competition by the prestigious National Defence Academy, Pune, during its 75th
anniversary in the “family members category.” He lives in Mumbai.
I am immensely grateful to Dr Sunil Sharma, editor of
the Setu Bilingual Magazine for giving me the opportunity to hold this
wonderful and candid conversation. Without further ado, I invite you all to
take a dip with me into the intriguing and brilliant mind of Sanjeev Sethi.
Please share your literary journey: the origins of Mr. Sanjeev Sethi.
I began writing poetry very young—twelve or thirteen.
I have memories of writing poems in diaries, and they also started getting published
in my school magazine. So, my poetic process, which began very young, has been
a constant companion all these years—now I’m sixty. When I finished college in 1982, at the age of
twenty, I began my career as a journalist. I was very prolific with my
writing—both in journalism and poetry—publishing poems in every venue I could
find. My first book, “Suddenly for Someone” was published in 1988 when I was
twenty-six, and thus began my journey as an author.
Could you shed some light on who and what has
influenced you as a writer?
I was a lonely child. My father was in the
army and would get posted every two to three years. So, there were a new bunch
of friends, and inherent in that was loneliness. Coupled with that was my urge to escape.
When I was in the hostel during college in Chandigarh—an all-male college—these
fellows were fond of cricket. During those days, they used to have these tiny
transistors. Everyone had one of those, listening to the commentary constantly,
and I used to hate that sound because I was never involved with cricket in any
shape or form. So, I inevitably sought refuge in the library.
Fortunately, my English professor—my first
influence and mentor—the late Professor R.P. Chadha, was in charge of the
library, and he had a beautiful poetry selection because he was a poet. I used
to cycle to his house on the weekends, where he would work on my poems. I was
so weak at the time with my poetic capabilities I don’t know if he had much of
an impact, but because of him, I read a lot. I moved on, kept writing, kept
getting published, and then life took on. It is, of course, tough to spot an individual
poet who has influenced me. As a voracious reader, the poetic process instead
influenced me—someone’s lines, someone’s phrase, a particular poem, or even a series
of poems. It is truly a collective that influenced me.
What goes into writing a poem? Please share your creative process along with the themes or styles you prefer.
Tejaswinee, there
is no one stroke of genius. Sometimes, there is a word that strikes a thought.
Sometimes, it’s just an idea. Sometimes, a memory. Or perhaps, someone else’s
work, a painting, a film. You know, the impulse and the stimulus could be
anything. I’ve been expressing myself only in poetry for the last
decade or so. So, if something hits me, and it hits me strongly enough, a poem
will be born of that experience. I submit myself to that energy, and I do
whatever best I can do with it.
Additionally,
emotions have a role, though, with age, emotions get distilled; thus, if you
see my earlier work, there would be much more emotion in those poems. As one
grows older, I think one dries up, so in the poems I’m writing now, even if it
is a love poem, that choppiness is not there.
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Sanjeev Sethi |
Many of your poems are personal. For
instance, there is “Sunny Chacha” from “This Summer and That Summer”
(Bloomsbury, 2015), “Loss and Other Lessons” from “Wrappings in Bespoke” (Hedgehog
Press, 2022). Where does the person end and the poem begin for you?
The
person does not end; I am the poem. Sanjeev Sethi is the poem. There are
add-ons, and the poetic license is used for the sake of craft, but the poem’s
essence is me. I think this would be the case for most poets if not all, but in
my poetry, the beginning and the end are me—and if this sounds vain, so be it. ‘Essence’
is the operative word; the kernel of the poem is my truth, my core. Being
authentic to ourselves is the basic essence of creativity, and it is essential
to surrender to one’s voice and let it take over. That is supreme; that is
divinity. One shouldn’t play around with that.
When you write, do you think about
what will become of your poems, or whether someone, a sweet century from now
will connect with your work? And as such, are your philosophical insertions as
in “Distich” and “POV” from “Strokes of Solace” (Classix, 2022) intentional?
I don’t burden myself with what will happen to whatever I write,
even ten years from now. For me, it is just the power of the moment that I am
celebrating my existence on earth, documenting my reality, and leaving it at that.
Since I have not been a literature student—I have done economics and
history—the historical perspective of poetry does not burden me; I am responding
to stimuli in the best manner possible. I am merely floating with ideas—I
navigate the path; whatever energies join me, I let them. I don’t bother with
whether I am writing a philosophical, political, or personal poem. I enjoy the
poetic process and have been enjoying it for so many years that I can be locked
up in a room and write for sixteen hours. I hope this bliss never
deserts me. I am at peace with myself when I am inditing. It is fulfilling, and
I don’t search for more.
That said, the
poem should be firm on technique and poetic grammar; it should stand
the test of poetic rigor—that, for me, is the only parameter. There
is a difference between writing something for your diary and writing a poem or
a public document. People are going to be reading it. So, to the reader,
it has to offer something. It has to go beyond the personal. Yes, the personal
is the beginning—that is the edifice on which the poem is created, but after
that, whoever reads it, must get a glimpse of something of their life through
that poem. That, I believe, is good poetry.
You have a
poem in “This Summer and That Summer” (Bloomsbury, 2015) called “After Reading
a Young Poet”. It ends with the lines: “Should I embrace or exile you / from
the kinship of my quirks?” How do you feel after reading a young poet?
Look, this poem came from a specific experience,
and it was some fourteen-fifteen years ago, so there’s no point in talking
about it! But let’s speak about the more significant issue. When I read younger
poets, they energize me. How I relate to a poem is not so much the thematic
quality but how strong the technique, the craft, and the strength of their
poetic grammar. If the younger poet has those qualities, I enjoy their work,
even if I don’t relate to their content. I don’t compromise on the craft.
As a poet who’s been publishing for a long
time and worldwide, what are some of the changes you’d like to see in the
publishing industry, specifically in the poetry publishing scene in India?
Additionally, what is your advice to young poets starting to navigate the
publishing industry?
This is the time
to celebrate the fact that so many options are available. Because of the
internet, the whole world is your oyster. I don’t think there is any reason to
crib and cry. Once you are ready with your poetic process, everything is
available to you—be authentic to yourself about whether you are prepared, but
once you are and you will know when you are, write, send it
around, and if your work gets rejected, don’t let it bother you—keep working at
it as somebody will publish you, and it will be gratifying. Let the process of
creating and publishing be magical—don’t look for anything bigger than that.
When a poem is published, celebrate that moment, and move on to the following
poem. Creating a poem is establishing a connection with the cosmic.
You are an established poet and have
garnered much life experience. If you were to travel back in time,
what advice would you give your younger self?
Don’t take life so
seriously! Don’t be so anxious; everything pans out fine. Just keep working,
with a clean heart, with focus, with attention, and don’t be so stressed—I
think I’ve been overly stressed all my life. I’d ask my younger self to be
slightly chilled to use a more contemporary language! I don’t think I have ever
been! Every day felt like the end of the world for me, but that’s not how life
is—the universe gives you whatever you are ready for.
“Poetry is born / of unsettled scuffles”
are lines from “Distich” published in “Strokes of Solace” (Classix, 2022), and in your recent interview
with Kitaab, you said, “Poetry is an impulse.” Thus, I am urged to
ask you one final question: what is a poem?
A poem is beyond definition. When you are in the presence of fine lines, their essence will reach you, you will be able to connect with them, feel the emotions, feel elevated, and you will know this is something beautiful, something special. And that is a poem.
***
Poet’s Bio: Sanjeev Sethi has authored seven books of poetry. His latest is Wrappings in Bespoke (The Hedgehog
Poetry Press, UK, August 2022). He
has been published in over thirty countries. His poems
have found a home in more than 400 journals, anthologies, and online literary
venues. He edited Dreich Planet #1, for Hybriddreich, Scotland, in December 2022. He is the joint winner of the Full Fat Collection
Competition-Deux, organized by The Hedgehog Poetry Press, UK. In 2023, he won
the First Prize in a Poetry Competition by the prestigious National Defence
Academy, Pune, during its 75th anniversary in the “family members
category.” He lives in Mumbai, India.
Twitter @sanjeevpoems3 || Instagram
sanjeevsethipoemsInterviewer's Bio: Tejaswinee Roychowdhury is a Pushcart-nominated writer and poet from West Bengal, India. She also dabbles in the occasional art/photography. With her interview episode on The Nuts & Bolts of Writing Podcast with Imelda Wei Ding Lo featured in Arizona State University's Superstition Review blog, Tejaswinee's work spanning across genres has been curated in eleven countries. Her publications include Muse India, Taco Bell Quarterly, San Antonio Review, Setu, Driech, miniMAG, Amity: peace poems, Borderless Journal, Kitaab, and Paddler Press, among others, and has been featured in the Pandan Weekly Newsletter. Tejaswinee is the founding editor of The Hooghly Review, a lawyer, and can be found tweeting @TejaswineeRC.
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