“Poetry keeps you young. Age is no barrier,” says Murali Sivaramakrishnan, a professor of English at the Pondicherry Central University, who recently came out with his new poetry collection, ‘Silverfish’.
A poet and painter, Mr. Sivaramakrishnan says he took up teaching as a profession “for survival” during a conversation about himself and his works, hosted by the People for Pondicherry’s Heritage.
His poems are mainly drawn from his personal experience that explores aspects of being, growing up and relationship with people.
“Poetry comes naturally. I am a ‘mood’ poet and words come along during moments of inspiration. Every poet has to be self-reflective and there should be certain deliberateness,” he said. With several poetry collections to his credit, he read out poems from ‘Night Heron’, ‘Silverfish’ and ‘Selected Poems’.
“Even touch, smell inspires me to write. All my poems are in a sense autobiographical,” he says.
Talking about poetry writing during the conversation, he said: “In poetry, you let yourself go. One does not know where to begin and where to end. There are innumerable poets. But, while writing prose you need to think in an organised way. It is standardised and measured,” he said.
Other than poetry, his area of specialisation includes aesthetics, literary theory, Indian literature, visual arts and environmental studies. He has contributed research articles to several international and national journals.
Oeuvre of works
Mr. Sivaramakrishnan’s oeuvre of works includes ‘Learning to Think like Myself’, ‘Ecological Criticism for Our Times: Literature, Nature and the Critical Inquiry’, ‘Under the Greenwood Tree’, ‘Image and Culture: The Dynamics of Literary, Aesthetic and Cultural Representation’ and ‘Sri Aurobindo’s Aesthetics and Poetics: New Directions’.
