Introspective poetry that strums on the strings of our emotions
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Sri Lankan poetry is generally of a high standard, but in my opinion relies too much on external stimuli. This could be due to the abundance of nature’s bounty, the fascinating mosaic of our colonial heritage and the complexity of inter-racial relationships.
Taarun Joel Sinniah is an exciting, dare I say, brilliant young expatriate poet residing in Australia. In his collection of poems, ‘The Protector’s Palace’, he introduces us to a unique genre of poetry, somewhat reminiscent of Sylvia Plath’s poems. His writing is sensitive and intensely introspective, strumming on the strings of our emotions.
The small ‘gem’ of his opening poem encapsulates this:
Clarity
This may sound silly to you
Let’s just say it’s a poem
But once the ties of reality shatter
You control what matters
Time to reconstruct reality back from the cinders
Of a mind keen to resemble
Something it once was
But nothing could ever assemble
Clarity
The structure of the poems is often conventional but there is no strict meter as in:
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Down the Rabbit Hole
Each and every time we stop
And take a moment to think
About the way this world goes round
And what we miss every blink
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The way we live our lives is flawed
We have been moulded by like- minded hands
Made to obey and conform
And not to understand…
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Or with no definite structure as in:
‘Mindless’
The corners of my concentration start to flicker
As the far reaches of my mind start to bicker
With each other, I try to keep my ideas on
The task at hand: the battle to be won
As I sit beneath the moon
Time ticks by
And the ideas of soon
Becomes a distant moment
Trapped in far reaches of space…
This volume comprises 38 poems described as performance poetry–Taarun himself is a spoken word poet.
The hardcover publication is elegant, the print italicised on cream paper.
It is priced at Aus $ 15 and will be available at Barefoot Bookshop.
Premini Amerasinghe
| Book Facts The Protector’s Palace, by Taarun Joel Sinniah |