A poet’s search for home

“We carry our umbilical cords/with us, coiled in our pockets for comfort./But at every open door, we will be asked/where we are from.”

This excerpt from the poem Last Generation (The Clarity of Distance collection) sums up both the mood of the book, and the longing of poet Ayesha Chatterjee to make sense of her identity. The poet will be reading her works at an event organised by Prakriti Foundation in the city this week.

Chatterjee says the book came into being while she was sitting by a restaurant window in Toronto, her home. “I noticed a fly trying to escape. But, it could not,” she recalls. “There was the glass obstructing it. I kept thinking of how it was right there but completely distant from where it wanted to go. You do not realise how far something is, because there is a barrier between you and that.”

Identity plays a strong role in the works of this Bengali writer, who did a double major in English Literature and German Studies from the US. She then went on to work in the logistics department of a corporate company in Germany, where she met her husband.

“It is the uncertainty of not knowing who you are and where you are that comes out of moving from one country to the other. Even though I have lived in Germany a long time, I have always been a foreigner somehow. And, then, I shifted to Canada, which was a whole new place.

While Clarity of Distance dwells on faint childhood memories, Bottles and Bones, her second work, is more about the present and focuses on a quirky, fascinating topic: perfumes. “It is more expressionistic. But, I try to make it less esoteric and not too difficult to understand,” she says.

Growing up in Kolkata, she was fed a staple menu of literature by Romantic poets such as Lord Byron, Alfred Lord Tennyson and Sir Walter Scott. But it was in the US that she found herself drawn to the distilled writing of Emily Dickinson. In fact, Chatterjee’s choice of words and subtlety reminds one strongly of the American writer. “In college, it took a bit of time to understand her especially coming from an Indian background. Thomas Hardy is also another big influence; I find him very visual and effective,” she says.

However, she says she is obliged to the Romantics for laying a strong foundation of rhythm and metre in her. “You need to know the rules to break them. So, even when I write free verse, I am playing the sentence or stanza in my head with a sense of rhythm. Because I have done too much rhyming before, it comes naturally to me, now.”

Another inspiration

In Germany, she experienced the delight of living in a country where the language and culture were different. German poets also helped her churn her style into what it is now. Especially Rainer Maria Rilke. “ I like how he uses myths in his poems. The lyricism and imagery of his poetry is lovely. There is also something universal about his verses.”

Apart from words, photography and music are her other loves. Some of her poems have been reviewed as extremely visual. “I love art, even though I can’t paint. So, I used poetry to put down my thoughts or go back to a memory. Music is something else that I am fascinated with. Poetry is like music, without the help of external elements.”

Poetry in Canada — like in any part of the world — is seen as a niche area. However, Chatterjee says the poetry reading scene is active during National Poetry Month in April, when pubs and bookstores bubble with poets’ meets and readings. “A friend of mine said poetry is the new punk rock in Canada. There is performance poetry, involving many young poets. Take, for instance, another Canadian poet Rupi Kaur, whose Instagram page, with her short poems, has many young followers,” says the past president of League of Canadian Poets.

The League gives a big push to poetry reading during this month through radio and other media. The Canadian government gives it special funds during National Poetry Month. “Poets can apply for a reading fee. You are paid to read your poems, centred on themes such as Food, The Road or Time. This is to encourage people into poetry, since it is difficult to make money living as a poet.”