LIFE OF A POET ~ SREEJA

We have a lovely feature for you today, fellow poets. We are visiting the lovely poet, Sreeja, in Mumbai. Sreeja writes at Writing On Just To Write......., and we are very happy she has found her way to Poets United. Sreeja is a very talented artist as well as a poet, so draw your chairs in close and get ready to enjoy some  art, along with some beautiful poems.

Sherry: Sreeja, as you are fairly new at Poets United, would you paint a little picture for us of the poet at home, so we can get to know you better?

Sreeja: Hello, it’s a pleasure to have a talk with you. I really admire the way you are so close to nature. Everything about nature inspires so much in us. So I will say first I am a nature lover. Then I am a wife to a really wonderful man, mother to two ever questioning, ever active lovely kids. Four of us make my nuclear family (otherwise we have large family back in Kerala (India)) and now we are in Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra (India).

This is my family

Here we are residing in a rented flat and close to us lies the Kharghar Hills that turns to a marvellous place during rainy season with all its small creeks, waterfalls and marvellous greenery.

All four of us love to walk through the hills getting drenched in rain. My husband’s cousin and family are here in Kharghar, so sometimes we go together out in rain to the hills and enjoy a lot.  Maybe that’s why I am not so home sick for my hometown back in Kerala, where I lived all through the 33 years of my life.  Only a few years back we moved to Navi Mumbai.

This is the beach nearest

to my home back in Kerala

Back in Kerala I worked as a copy editor for one and a half years, otherwise I always preferred to be at home. Did some freelance here in Mumbai, but I think I enjoy the freedom I have at home, so now I am fully into experimenting with paints and words, experimenting with how to raise two kids as responsible and sensible persons, a lot of reading and a bit of music with violin.

Sherry: It sounds like a full, happy and very meaningful life. I love that you play violin, an instrument I have always wished I could play. When did you begin writing, Sreeja?

Sreeja: I used to scribble out my mind as a child but they were all rubbish things that I never showed to anybody. A couple of times wrote stories and poems for school magazine and competitions. But they were in Hindi.  Actually as a student I never took poetry seriously and avoided reading, it kind of irritated me. I never thought I will start loving poetry or writing.

In 2011 my husband went abroad and I frantically tried to fill that gap. Those days I read daily ‘The Hindu’ like a student who has got exams. There was a feature about Nanowrimo in The Hindu and, just to keep myself busy, I got into it. Believe me, that November was marvellous, and seeing my enthusiasm, my parents took care of my kids wholly and my father even gave me almonds and chocolates at intervals, as if I am kid taking an exam. That year I got my first ever online friends. They are the friends who gave me the first lessons of writing. I wrote the novel about my childhood friend, who is still there for me at every point of my life.

This is the corner where I spend most of my time 

when I am home alone

November was over and on December morning I found myself itching to write. That’s how I started writing. I am a bit lazy person and poetry seemed a better option for me. At first I completed writing poems within ten or fifteen minutes and never read it again. I was sure I will quit writing gradually unless I make some kind of commitment, because with November the euphoria also went. I started the blog and was blank about how to proceed. That’s when I discovered all the wonderful blogs giving prompts for writing poetry. And when I started reading poetry, it seemed to be the most beautiful way to express thoughts. Thanks to all the poet bloggers out there and the Nanowrimo friends.  In a way the blogger world is my poetry school.

Sherry: I think it is that for each one of us, Sreeja. I am so enjoying this visit! What do you love about poetry now?

Sreeja: Poetry is like a romantic rendezvous with your own thoughts, life and nature and finding the apt words and combinations to put it to a physical form, and I like it more when it is short and crisp with depth in it. I am yet to learn that art, when I read some of the poets out there it just makes my brain the happiest part of my whole body. Otherwise to be so much happy I need an outing, especially a walk through some green green place.

The Kharghar Hills

Sherry: I love that description! And your green hills are beautiful!!!!!!!! What a lovely place to enjoy in all weathers. Would you like to share three of your poems with us? And tell us a little about each one?

Sreeja: I would love to share!

Returning to Rivers

Some days I shut myself up

Windows and doors closed

And pour a river song to my ears, uncut

We are like pollen and gale

We tumble a lot and gather piles

Of dead and tender leaves of life, infinite

 Some days I shut myself up

Drink in rivers of thoughts

And soak upside down, inside out

Sieves out dead leaves and thorns

Gathers tender leaves and golden stones

And that needs rivers to dip and rise

Next morning when the sun rises, I will forget

If love was the bird that knocked at the window

I will forget to contemplate so

I have got a river inside me

Now for days I will be rich as a tree

Deep as an ocean and will regret nothing

Sherry: I so adore "if love was the bird that knocked at the window".

Sreeja: This one came straight from heart. I am a sensitive person; anything around me, even from small talks with loved ones to news from all around us leaves deep impacts on me.  And through my experience and the twin heart meditation that I practice, I have learned that we have to refresh our consciousness, thoughts and feelings on a daily basis, taking every bit of weed out and keeping only goodness and wisdom that we acquired on the go. This poem is all about those thoughts.

This painting is dear to me, even though I couldn’t capture

all the euphoria I felt about rain and ocean.

Sherry: I so agree about refreshing our consciousness, especially during times when we are bombarded with so much that is negative. Sreeja, your painting is very joyful! I love the idea of whales cavorting in the rain!
Let's enjoy your next poem:

Putting Some Unorganized Musings…

Morning dew’s freshness drips in here

Dreams and flowers missed are weaved here

All those lonely moments are treasured here

Agonies and fears shared, it’s so secure here

Wisdom shared in lyrics, its only sunrise here.

      And so

Poetry for me is a feeling of growth

Like a tiny tree spreading its roots

To everywhere, where there is water for thirst

To absorb the very essence of truth

To be in the garden of wisdom

Like a tiny tree spreading its roots

In the mud and soil of life

To spread its shade and beauty across

For generations to rejoice.

        And  yes

It is words uttered in silence

Thoughts poured in essence

Like the old vine that is precious.

                      

     And

I am here putting my first steps

learning my alphabets..............

This is all about what I feel when poetry is the subject. I wrote it back in 2012, I think I still have the same feelings….

Sherry: Very lovely. I so enjoy that little tree, spreading its roots through your poem.

Rain, Rain Just Rain…

Yesterday, night tossed with me in strayed lines

Of grey, black and flashing silver screams

Without reason or any purplish wound of worries

And rain tossed with wind high and low, rushing

Like many thoughts that keep on building

Like termite mounds crippling everything, nibbling

On identities, dreams and the veil of doubt spreading

                      greyish

This morning we made a trip up the hill

In the beating rain to see the waterfall

That took birth with monsoon dreams, which till

Then was musing in cloudy fantasies up the hill

And then, the time crept into those rich green leaves

And those washed out spiky grass and tree trunks with moss

And got lost, there little streams were flowing endless

As rain danced upon them mellowing into the wild beats

And then, last night’s grey rain vanished

And so was the ME in me cleansed

And got lost with the time that eloped

To all that was wild and true and vivid

And delusions of past and future washed

And now the rain flowing like blood in the veins sings euphoric melodies

This poem I love because it brings back all the memories of a wonderful rainy day spent up the hills.

Up in The Kharghar Hills

Sherry: Your hills are so very beautiful, as are your poems. I discovered on your ART CORNER blog, that you are also a very talented artist. (Kids, check it out. Sreeja has some amazing paintings.) When did you begin painting? Did you love art as a child?

Sreeja: Thank you for that compliment; I just love painting, the paint, the brush strokes and all about it. But I haven’t yet experimented and explored enough because I took it seriously only lately. I used to do pencil sketches and water colour paintings as a child. I don’t remember if I loved doing it or not but I definitely loved to have papers and colours; I loved to own different types of colours and pencils. My class mates were the first people in my life who called me an artist, and I really didn’t know the power of that word. I just enjoyed the love and attention I got that way. Otherwise I was a silent kid who avoided being noticed.

This painting is dear to me; with this I started painting after a big gap. It is the first big canvas I did, a canvas almost my size.

Sherry: Sreeja, this painting is magnificent.

I think I could express a bit of what I feel about Buddha in this one, so this one is also close to my heart.

Sherry: I love this one, as well. You are very talented. Is there someone, looking back, that you feel played a significant role in encouraging your creativity, your art and poetry?

Sreeja: My mother is a very talented person but she abandoned everything without seriously trying her best. So I owe it to her, it’s her gene. She gave me the first lessons. My father always brought me art materials and was happy whenever I did paintings. One of my mother’s cousins, who is a well-known artist based in Kerala, encouraged me to start with oil on canvas. It was fun to do paintings on canvas. But we took all these things as just another part of life and didn’t give much attention. By the time I reached college I, too, left my passions behind without much thought. Reading was the only thing I didn’t give up.

Things changed when my husband’s cousin challenged me to paint Lord Krishna and Arjuna in the chariot (Bhagavath Geetha). That was the time when I started writing. He encouraged me a lot to do paintings and to write more. The Geetha painting really gave me that most wanted push to continue with my passions. I must say it is my husband and his family who really motivated me to keep going, with their love and encouragement. I am grateful to my school and college friends who believed in me. They are the people who put all the likes whenever I post my poems and paintings on FB. I love the way my kids look at my works and give their own comments which are valuable at times. So I am really thankful to a lot of people in my life to help me find and keep alive the reason and way for my soul to be happy.

Sherry: Sreeja, I am happy you are so well supported and appreciated. Your work is wonderful. It is wonderful that your kids  see their mother pursuing her art. It will inspire them to follow their own dreams. Is there anything you’d like to say to Poets United?

Sreeja: I visit Poets United to read about poets. It’s a great platform out there. I love to read such interviews and I do it when I have got plenty of time.  It is great to know the thoughts and life of real poets out there. It really encourages me to keep going and someday I hope I too will write something great that will bring a happy wise smile on others’ faces, and will get my share of love from everybody I touch through poetry. Who won’t love to be loved the way we love people who can weave magic with words and colours.

Sherry: Well, I suspect that today you have received many of those wise smiles already. We look forward to enjoying your work in the months and years to come. Thank you, Sreeja, for allowing us to get to know you better.

Wasn't this a treat, my friends? I love the interesting lives poets lead and how often they are talented in many areas. We hope you enjoyed this. And do come back and see who we talk to next. Who knows? It might be you!