An author of two books, a co-author to several anthologies, and a two-time awardee of the prestigious Orange Flower Awards, Swarnali Nath is an Engineer turned Digital Marketer turned Writer. She blogs at The Blissful Storyteller and runs The Peace Stories Initiative. When not writing, she spends time singing, quilling, cooking, and researching Spirituality, Psychology, and History. Get in touch with her on Instagram @blissfulstoryteller and Twitter @scarsandglory. In conversation with Samata Dey – Founder Indiacafe24.com and compiler and editor of The Shakti Within- Durga’s Call
Hello Swarnali, glad to have you here today. Can you tell us a bit about your journey as a poet and what inspired you to explore themes of divine femininity and empowerment in your work?
Hello! Thank you, IndiaCafe24, for having me share my thoughts with you. I am honored to be here. At first, I would like to introduce myself as a writer. I prefer to call myself a writer, instead of a poet because I love to write poetic pieces and prose in a lyrical style, but I have never been a serious poet. I believe the art of poetry is a never-ending process, and thus, I am a lifelong learner of this art.
When it comes to writing a poem, I don’t try to write it when I am in a messy state of mind. I only write poems when I am calm, both from outside and inside. Sitting in a quiet corner of the house, putting the earphones on my ear, playing an instrumental music, I take myself on a voyage of thoughts, and ink the words playing in my subconscious.
My journey of writing poetry started at the age of four when I wrote my first poem with the help of my grandfather. The poem was titled ‘Basana’, which means wishes. We dedicated this poem to Devi Saraswati as it was a child’s prayer to the Goddess. The poem was published in our school’s annual magazine and stuck to the hall wall for the next year. It is still one of my favorite writing memories as writing that poem marked the beginning of a writer’s literary journey.
My Dadu taught me the basic lessons of the art of poetry. He was a writer, and he wrote many stories, poems, essays, articles, reference books, etc. He was fond of creating and solving crosswords, and whenever he created his own crosswords, he used to write the puzzle in poems. He had a voluminous notebook of his own poetic puzzles that always intrigued me to know more about the art of poetry.
Soon, I developed a deep love for poetry and I kept writing short poems on everything and everyone I came across in life. I still have that diary with me, preserved with utmost care.
Later, when I resumed my writing career in my youth, several poems of mine were featured on various online platforms, poetry forums, and eMagazines. My second book, ‘A Letter to Tomorrow’ is a collection of poems and poetic pieces based on the themes of hope, love, and peace.
Among my multiple WIP projects, there is also a collection of poems that I have been writing since I returned from a vacation to a spiritual place. While staying there, I had a realization that every poem I write is an offering to the divinity within. As soon as I came home, I wrote a few poems on my revelation, and since then, I have been writing this series of poems whenever I discover a pearl in my self-discovery journey.
Can you share your writing process? How do you approach crafting poetry, especially when dealing with themes as profound as divine femininity and empowerment?
At first, I research the theme extensively. Then, I choose the topic I want to write. Next, I note down the elements or pointers I want to write in my poem. The next step is one of the crucial ones: drafting the outline of the poem. In the beginning, I randomly jot down my thoughts and develop a draft with my scribbling words.
Slowly, I keep editing the lines and adding rhythm to them. I keep polishing them until they express my thoughts completely and I can give my thoughts the desired shape. After reading it aloud, if it sounds like a rhythmic piece, then my job is done. I call it a poem!
What role do mythology and folklore play in your life outside of your poetry? Are there particular stories or figures that have influenced you personally?
I am spiritually initiated in the Ramakrishna Mission order, and following the teachings of our monks and nuns, I have developed an ardent admiration towards Devi Durga. Though, the first time I sensed a deep devotion and connection to the Goddess in my childhood when I learned the Agomoni songs.
During my specialization in Nazrulgeeti, I came across this genre of music where we sing the songs of Devi Durga as a praise to the Divine Mother. In the lyrics of Agomoni songs, I saw the lyricists had addressed the Goddess as human: sometimes as the daughter of the adamant father, sometimes as the wife of the vagabond husband, and sometimes as a mother of four naughty children. In these songs, the Goddess is considered an ordinary woman who possesses some extraordinary power yet behaves like a woman living a mundane life. But most of the Agomoni songs have lyrics where Mother Menka is asking the Giriraj Himalaya to bring her daughter from her husband’s abode in Kailash, as she is longing to see a glimpse of her daughter. These lyrics founded the backbone of my perspective towards the Goddess as a human being. Since then, I have developed a curiosity to imagine the Goddess as an embodiment of feminine power. Thus, I try to write my pieces with the theme of personification of the divine feminity and empowerment through a woman who seems ordinary yet she is extraordinary in every aspect of life.
Apart from the Agomoni songs, I am deeply influenced by the folk culture of Bengal. My maternal grandfather was a folk singer, and thus, my mother used to tell me stories of his experiences. Also, my mother planted the seed of loving my roots and knowing its culture since I was a child. As a result, I have brought up hearing, reading, and knowing stories from Indian mythology and folk culture of Bengal. I love to sing the folk songs of Bengal. I also love to study the lyrics of folk music of Bengal like Baul, Kirtan, etc.
Among the folktales and folklores of Bengal, the stories of the wandering minstrels of Bengal attract me the most. Once in my childhood, my mother bought me a pair of Baul dolls from a fair. I was so inspired by their saffron attire, their string instrument called ‘Ektara’, and their stories from my mother, that one day, I was all prepared to leave my home and become a Baul singer. I was only a child at that time. Though the elders of my family somehow convinced me to keep my backpack on the floor and stop me from becoming a wandering singer, that soul of the renouncer is still alive in me.
In your opinion, how has the perception of feminine power evolved in modern literature compared to traditional narratives?
The feminine power has been worshipped in our country since the ancient age. We have read about ancient sages who worshipped the various avatars of the Divine Mother. The divine feminine power ‘Adi Shakti’ is considered the source of creation and destruction of everything that exists in this universe. Those who believe in the perceptions of Indian Mythology are bound to believe in the power of the Divine Mother.
With time, writers, artists, sculptors, and people associated with creativity started imagining the Goddess as a woman and thus the new tradition of interpreting different avatars of the Goddess was born. If you come to West Bengal during Durga Pujo, you will see hundreds of idols with unique themes that the idol makers have interpreted as a colloquial presentation of the Goddess and made idols with this imagination.
The more we are progressing in this modern age, the more we are witnessing welcoming the Goddess’s new avatars with a liberal mindset. We consider women as the embodiment of feminine power and that every woman is Durga or any other avatar of feminine power. I encourage this kind of thought. If and only if everyone learns to adopt this perspective and starts looking at every woman as the Goddess, only then the world will witness the dawn of a new era when women will have less suffering on this earth.
However, I strongly oppose the thought of making the human avatar of the Goddess ultra-modern and presenting Her with anything and everything that comes to our minds. I mean, it’s absolutely fine if we depict the Goddess as a woman on earth, wearing a T-shirt and Jeans, speaking English, singing with a Guitar, learning Judo, and punishing evil with her extraordinary power. But, at the same time, we need to keep in mind that balancing the elements of traditional narratives and modern literature is the key to bringing life to the clay idol and turning it into a woman of supreme power.
Do you have a specific audience in mind when you write, or do you prefer to let your poems resonate with whoever finds meaning in them?
When I write theme-based poems, I do have a specific audience in mind. Like, many people love to read poems on romance, so when I write poems on this theme, I make sure to add flavours of love to my poems. Likewise, when I write spiritual poems, I have a dedicated audience who love to read such poems and admire the thoughts of divinity, self-discovery, and feminine power. I also write poems based on my own experience with mental health.
Though many people love to read these poems, people who have been in the same state of mind or have experienced the same in their lives can relate to these poems the most as these lines resonate with their unspoken words.
Therefore, I believe writing for a specific audience makes you more concerned about their requirements as a reader. As a result, you can write with more feel and thus, it will touch their hearts.
How do you incorporate feedback from readers or peers into your writing? Has there been any specific feedback that has significantly influenced your work?
I always respect and value my readers’ feedback. Whether it’s positive or negative, it always inspires me to write more and helps me to improve my writing.
After reading my first book, a stranger messaged me that reading the chapter on dreaming helped her return to her lost dreams and inspired her to start working on them with a new perspective. Another one was from a mother of a special child, who wrote me that reading my book helped her heal and find the answers she had been asking the Almighty for her child’s condition. I always feel blessed to receive feedback from readers like them who have a different mindset while reading my book, as it feels like my light touched them through my words.
A nice thing happened many times. When I am dealing with writer’s block or mood swing and feeling sad and wandering the reason behind my next writing endeavour, a message pops up in my inbox sharing how my words helped someone find a purpose in life, or walk one step further in their healing journey, or pause for some moments in the rush of life, or even someone telling me that this is what they had been trying to express but couldn’t write, and reading my words helped them express their untold stories. Feedbacks like this always help me to get the answer to this question: ‘Why should I write?’, and keeps me going defying all the odds.
Any tips for budding poets?
Poetry is all about rhythm. Therefore, writing poetry means expressing ourselves and our thoughts through a rhythmic gesture. If you are interested in writing poetry, at first, imagine yourself as a river and let yourself flow without any limit or fear. Let yourself be like a free bird, and write your heart out. Then, edit the piece or the lines by adding a gentle rhythm that makes the piece sound like anklets: it should have a rhythm in sync with your mind-body-soul.
The poems you write give your messy thoughts a form that helps you express yourself to the world. For me, poetry means ‘rooh ki sukoon’, peace of the soul. So, write your poems to offer your readers some moments to pause and ponder, and introspect their inner and outer world through a different lens.
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