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A poet and a person
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Lemn Sissay held the audience captive with his powerful yet ruminative lyricism
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PHOTO: AFP
DYNAMIC CONFLUENCE Lemn Sissay: `I believe that we live only because of context'
All he had was his birth certificate and a love for poetry. Fostered as a child and subsequently in a children's home till he was 18, Lemn Sissay was soon left to fend for himself not even knowing who or where his parents were. But his love for poetry would eventually redeem him.
"My poetry is not an act," says Lemn, who performed at Ranga Shankara recently. "It is simply a dialogue between me and the audience." He argues that the use of the word `act' would imply pretence, and in that sense hates being called a `performance poet.' In fact his poetry stems from his poignant personal struggles.
"My poetry became my closest friend. It kept me company all through my troubled times and helped me make sense of the world." The certificate, through which he got to know his real name and his mother's, would take him from his native Ethiopia to the UK and US. It was only when he was 35 that his search came to an end.
Lemn's performance was the third (following Roger Robinson and Patience Agbabi) in the series of Spoken Word performances as part of the Buzz program organized by the British Council for Arts. If Agbabi's poetry provides a taste of the possibilities that emerge when `page meets stage' while healing the chasm between them, then Lemn exemplifies the dynamism that ensues from this confluence. In the latter there is yet another dynamic union - that of the poet and the person.
Lemn's workshop for the students of Mount Carmel College the previous day created quite a stir. Kala Krishnan, one of the teachers at the college says: "The energy levels at Lemn's workshop were awesome. The students loved it. The word of mouth spread rapidly among the students and their friends."
Dressed in an all-white linen suit on stage, Lemn conveyed these experiences to his audience with such ιlan that one was moved, as much for the person within as for the poet outside. Or is it the other way round? His gig was infused with so much passion that one could completely comprehend what he meant when he said: "Poetry is essential to my being - not peripheral," or "I wrote my first poem when in my mother's womb."
In nine out of ten poems, Lemn shot off into a stand-up dialogue mode to create a launch pad for his poem: "Before I go on... " He improvised his long-drawn-out humorous discourses so effortlessly that the listener begins to falsely believe it was actually a part of the poem. "I believe that we live only because of context," Lemn said explaining his departures.
He engulfed the listener with his powerful yet ruminative lyricism even while losing his breath and emphasizing lines sotto voce. Just as well when he crescendos over his fast and dynamic passages. The audience listened in rapt attention to his brilliant clarity of expression. His poems "Black Is" (inspired by racism), "Remember how we forgot" (a take on George Bush's war in Iraq) among others exemplified these qualities.
One also had a taste of his versatility as a poet in his love poem "Invisible Kisses." With many couples around the world vouching for its influence on their lives, Lemn seems to have assumed the role of Cupid.
"Pass it on" with its groovy rap-like rhythmic textures demonstrated the need for background musical accompaniment. Gauging by the strength of his audience (over 150 and almost twice the turnout in the previous one) the series is undoubtedly picking up momentum andaugurs well for a revival of this relatively subdued art form in the city.
BHARADWAJ M. V.
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