It’s more than just verse, it’s a work of art too
Speakers at the launch: Seneka Abeyratne and Flavia Hettiarachchi. Pix by M.D. Nissanka
Jayashika Padmasiri’s new collection of poems is much more than verse slapped within two covers. A lavishly produced volume which is a painstaking labour of love between five people, it is as maverick as the author- a writer who has won the State Literary Award and is also a film director.
Meraki Sutra: Tears and Salt is so visual and elegant that the layout designer, the photographer, the illustrator and the copy editor have had as lofty a task as the poet herself.
Meraki in the title is a Modern Greek word- one which describes what happens when you leave a piece of yourself in your work.
At the launch of the collection at BMICH on Thursday, September 24 Jayashika, as the curtain (symbolically) opened intoned that the work is different from all her other books. In it, she says, “I try to break away from the convention that poetry could only be words on a page. This book is an effort to show that poetry can exist anywhere- and not only on pages of books.”
Seneka Abeyratne, speaker for the evening, said that it has to be the first time a Sri Lankan writer in English has produced such an exquisite blend of poetry and art.
“This wonderful book,” he enthused “with its feisty postmodern flavour, is full of contextual and emotional nuances. Each time I start reading it fresh I spot something new.”
Seneka did some dissection of the cover which has a graphic image of a mermaid on a rock, a sunflower pinned to her flowing hair and, on the horizon, another sunflower as the sun.
“The sunflower is a symbol of energy, life and vitality. The mermaid on the other hand is a lonely mythical creature who is free to roam the high seas and is not constrained by the strictures of society.
“Perhaps she symbolizes freedom. But freedom from what? To answer that you must read the book,” Seneka twinkled.
Among the speakers including Visakesa Chandrasekaram was Flavia Hettiarachchi, who gave a sense of the poet’s enigmatic nature when she said “to say that I have ‘known’ her is exaggeration, because Jayashika never lets anyone ‘know’ her in the true sense of the word.”
Flavia opined that “Jayashika’s short and crisp expression of casual observations has helped her to highlight the ultimate reality of life.”
“Jayashika’s writing is refreshing- she seems to question the validity of conventional ideas. She peeps into the world of love, betrayal, disgust and dejection. She belongs to the new world of poetry writing- a totally new world.”
Jayashika read English (Honours) at the Leeds Trinity University where she specialized in creative writing. It was Paper Planes, a collection of poetry that won her the State Literary Award in 2015.