Poetry always has some ripple effect

KABIR DEB is an author/ poet based in Karimganj, Assam. He works for the Punjab National Bank and has completed his Masters in Life Sciences from Assam University and is presently pursuing his MCW from Oxford University, London. He is the recipient of Social Journalism Award, 2017; Reuel International Award for Best Upcoming poet, 2019; and Nissim International Award, 2021 for Excellence in Literature for his book ‘Irrfan: His Life, Philosophy And Shades’. He runs a mental health library named ‘The Pandora’s box to a Society called Happiness’ in Barak Valley. He reviews books, many of which have been published in magazines like Outlook, Usawa Literary Review, The Financial Express, Cafe Dissensus, Sahitya Akademi etc. He currently also works as the Interview Editor of the Usawa Literary Review.

When did you first write a poem? Can you recall a specific moment from the experience?

In the slam book of a girl, when I was studying in Class 6, for the delusion I thought of her as my first love. An absurd one, which I still maintain whenever I talk or write about about love.

The experience of that particular moment was indeed an extraordinary one. It was for the first time I thought that I am full of hormones and love/lust is something that drives me towards writing poems.

Tell us about your journey till now, how has your writing style evolved over time?

The journey, if I have to say, has been a beautiful one. I climbed from writing trash poetry to the poems that succeeds in touching the readers. I am a man of science and my root lies in its soil. So, I did not have any specific style. And even if I had or have, I fail to realise what’s happening. I think this keeps me away from digging my foot in the territory of grammar and appropriation which has its pros and cons. Although I can say that I have developed a style of keeping patterns in my poems. They shift from a woman’s curves to a falling or rising stairs. This helps me to stay in focus and to maintain the forms I love.

 Can you name a recurring image or metaphor in your work, and explain its significance?

I once wrote a woman’s curves using the river as a metaphor and it is something I always go back to. The image of Eros leads me to explore sexuality in its various forms. I get to be the woman and the man in my poems, and this union allows me to write in a pretty unabashed manner.

If I have to talk about its significance then I have to say that in a world which maintains a certain distance from writing shameless erotica, the growth of the image of sex and the ways people pursue it, stripped the libertine in me. A libertine poet took birth in me and this image of myself in my mind always incises the hesitation society drips inside a man or a woman’s body!

 What’s your writing routine, ritual or process?

I am not someone who religiously follows a routine. It keeps on changing with time and the mood of my mind. Yet I am also not someone who waits poetry to arrive like an offspring. When I write, I keep on scribbling till I tire/exhaust my mind. I seek pleasure in the thoughts I put on the paper or screen, irrespective of the state of my mind. And like every pleasurable experience, writing is something that keeps on arousing my mind. So yes, there’s a ritual and its mostly relies on pleasure and intimacy with an idea or person or something beyond them.

 How do you see yourself in the intersection of the world we live in and the poems you write in your solitude? Do you think poetry has the power to influence social change?

I strongly believe in the fact that I should not die like a nameless individual. If I get to see myself in the present and future, I know that I am holding a knife to peel the fabrics of whatever restricts me. The intersection is going to happen since it’s the nature of power and its dynamics. I cannot allow my art to get affected by the change of this unholy permanence.

I do think poetry has the power to influence social changes. But I also believe that it is not the responsibility of a poet or any artist to bring a change. I can simply show what’s going on around me and everyone else. The ripple effect is something I am hopeful about but I don’t believe in certainty.

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