Poetry is a verb that happens….

Usha Akella’s new collection of poems I will not bear you sons will be launched on March 22, 7 pm Austin time/ March 23, 11 am, Australian time. Known for her poetic lines of feminine sensibilities and everyday experiences, Usha’s new poems explore a much nuanced magical moments.

When was that magic moment that turned you into a poet?

 It is a distinct memory that I wrote about at: https://www.thelookoutjournal.com/literary-moments/2019/9/8/for-nothing-would-she-do-but

I heard a poem by Keats, about this boy who ran away to Scotland in my elementary catholic convent school in Hyderabad. I think it was grade 4. When I heard the rhyme and rhythms of language in the poem, I knew in the most unconscious way that I too wanted to do that. It was that defining moment when I heard language as—magic! I went back home and tried my hand at my first poem. Many years of bad poems followed till I had my first formal guidance with Kendra Kopelke at the University of Baltimore in 1994. The journey began that year defining my life path and journey as a poet. I think of myself as a student of poetry who should try to do better with each poem.

During your formative years as a poet/reader, who were your ideals?

 I think the formative years never cease. I just wanted to be a good poet someday whatever the subject matter. I learnt/learn from so many, the Romantics, Bhakti and Sufi poets deeply moved me with their concerns. Eliot, Plath, Amichai, my peers in the South Asian poetry community and world over continually inspire me. I think in term of poetics I am drawn more to South/Central American poetry—the organic, rumbling, big rhythms and appetite to draw in all of life is something that resonates. It’s not to say that there is no form or sculpting but they are unafraid to go big, to dig deep to hear the pulse of life.

How important is the woman question in your poetry?

 Well, considering this interview is on the eve of the release of a whole book of feminist poems, I’d say it is integral. There are two main plazas in my soul, I suppose. The spiritual pull and the feminist pull. For a while, I thought they contradicted each other, one looking for transcendence and the other’s concern was immanence, in the body as a woman and dealing with issues that come with that. I realized as I went along the rift was itself an error of patriarchal infused perception. I don’t see a divide any longer and write freely walking down both plazas and also tackle the labyrinths in-between that have no labels. My work is done through the medium of poetry, of offering my voice to the struggle still going on within and without.

If someone asks you about the essence of Usha Akella as a poet, is there anyway that you can put it into words?

Perhaps, the refusal to give up on the self in the belief that poetry is the perfect carrier for the search. I think we are drawn to form and medium organically. For me, the pull has always been poetry. Something in the way poetry extends to and collapses the world in itself is magical. Metaphor, the chief tendon of poetry is nothing sheer of a miracle—it shows us how things are interconnected. Poetry, is a verb that happens within the noun of a poem.

Finally, what makes a good poem really good?

One that enters as a guest and leaves as the host to house the flowering of self.

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https://www.spinifexpress.com.au/events/book-launch-i-will-not-bear-you-sons

Please join 

BOOK LAUNCH

I will not bear you sons

By Usha Akella

To be released by:

Robyn Rowland

Spinifex Press

MARCH 23, 7 P.M. (Austin/Central) 2021

https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/book-launch-i-will-not-bear-you-sons-tickets-144137548287