Eyes without lids are forever open – open to the disingenuous and deceitful ways of society. The poet of Lidless Eyes, Shruti Das works within anaesthetic framework where poetry is on constant vigil, ready to explode against injustice and violence any moment
Monalisa Patsani
Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, August 30: Shruti Das, associate professor and head, department of English, Berhampur University, has published her second collection of poems titled Lidless Eyes. The book was launched at Bakul Foundation in the presence of the English poets of the city.
Speaking about her new collection, Shruti said, “It is a collection of 41 poems divided into three sections. The poems mostly deal with culture, society and concerns about day to day life. Some of the poems are reaction to incidences. All the poems were written within a span of two years and were published in different journals and anthologies in India and abroad.”
Shruti is the only Oriya poet other than Jayanta Mahapatra to be listed in the Journal of Commonwealth Literature for her first collection A Daughter Speaks. “There is not much difference between my first collection and the second. Lidless Eyes is a continuation of my first collection, but, yes, readers would find more maturity in it. Like my first collection where most of the poems were about the girl child and the problems she faces, the trauma she has to go through, similarly a reader would find ruminations on modern society in my second collection. I named it Lidless Eyes because some of the festering social problems around us prevent us from closing our eyes. We can’t shut our eyes and ignore things happening in society.”
Speaking about her love for poetry, Shruti says, “Playing with words is something I love doing. I don’t have to labour to write poetry, it happens automatically. Thoughts and ideas come to the surface naturally and I feel the urge to write whatever comes the way it comes.”
Shruti believes that the poetry of her grandfather, late Pandit Nilakantha Das, WB Yeats and TS Eliot had played a crucial role in shaping the poet in her. “I had the privileged of reading my grandfather’s poetry and learning something from him. He never wrote love poems but had deep appreciation of his culture. I am from a literature background and the poems of WB Yeats and TS Eliot are my favourite. I believe these poets have played an important role in shaping me. Tony Morrison is my ideal, too. Honestly speaking, I have not been influenced by any Indian poet other than Kamala Das,” she said.
Shruti often encourages her students to read poets like Tony Morrison, Sylvia Plath and Pablo Neruda. She said, “Some of my students write poetry and they come to me to make corrections in their draft. I often tell them to read regularly the works of great poets and analyse the works. Poetry is different from prose. It forces you to economise and express yourself within a condensed format.”
What is the writer’s next plan or project, we asked. She said, “I never plan anything or categorise myself with a particular kind of writing. I will continue my journey in the world of poetry.”
