An interview with Gary Cummiskey in the Kolkata-based Bengali literary journal Boier Duniya (The Book World) by poet and publisher Subhankar Das. Subhankar is currently publishing my latest collection of poetry, Somewhere else.
An English translation of the interview is below:
When did you start writing poetry?
I was about fourteen when I started. One day in school
our English teacher set us an exercise. He played the Peter Green-era Fleetwood
Mac track 'Albatross' and told us to listen carefully. Then he told us to write a
poem about an albatross for homework. I think I was the only kid in the class
who liked the idea! That night I wrote a poem about a dying albatross and
realised I wanted to write more poems … and so it started.
Tell us about your magazine Green Dragon.
Green Dragon was a literary journal that I published from
2002 to 2009. It ran to six issues and featured both poetry and prose, as well
as interviews and reviews. The first two issues were staple bound, while the
others were perfect bound. I printed about 300 copies of each issue. I
published mainly South African writers but also some overseas ones, mainly
from the US, but also from the Netherlands and the UK. The seventh issue was
scheduled to be a short-fiction special, with material selected by South
African writer and poet Arja Salafranca. But the amount of material we received
was so big that it turned out to be a huge anthology in its own right, called
The Edge of Things, which appeared in 2011 and was highly acclaimed. Green
Dragon did not continue after that. I got tired of it, it was a huge amount of
work.
Your favourite poets and how do they move you?
I have so many favourite poets and my preferences change.
But my main influences have been the US beat poets and the modern French poets.
Among the US beats my favourites are Gregory Corso and Bob Kaufman, as well as
more borderline beats such as Marty Matz and Philip Lamantia. Among the French,
Antonin Artaud, Jacques Prévert, Joyce Mansour and Claude Pélieu. Also the
Spanish-language modernists, such as Neruda, Vallejo and Lorca. Among South African
poets definitely Wopko Jensma, Sinclair Beiles and Seitlhamo Motsapi. A feature
that that they all share is a willingness to experiment with language, to use
language in new ways, often in a subversive manner. I am both intrigued and
inspired by poetry that aims to challenge the norms in which language is
presented or used.
You know about the Hungryalist writer movement here in the
60s, you were a friend of Pradip Choudhury. Do you think there is a common theme of
independence or something worth mentioning about their work? Falguni Roy was
also an important poet and Sharmy made a short film Eebang Falguni aka The lost
lines of a beauty monster, which you have seen.
From the few Hungryalist writers whom I have read, there are
certainly common voices of independence, of breaking away from conventional
literary forms, a willingness to experiment, to take risks. There is definitely a
countercultural stance. I have often seen the Hungryalists referred to as ‘the
hungry generation’, which sounds similar to ‘the beat generation’. I don’t know where that phrase originated from,
and while, yes, the Hungryalists and the beats shared a lot of common concerns
and there was interaction between them – eg Ginsberg in India, and
Ferlinghetti publishing some of the writers in the City Lights Journal, plus
corresponding with Malay Roy Choudhury – the scenes were quite different, and
in no way do I see the Hungryalists as ‘India’s version of the beats’ – the
Hungryalists had emerged quite independently of the beats.
Falguni Roy is an interesting poet and I would really love
to read more of his work – has there been a complete volume published in India? A tragic
figure, publishing one collection in his lifetime and dying of drug abuse, and
certainly influenced by the Hungryalists.
I sent you a book by Subimal Misra who was an
antiestablishment exponent here, any comments.
I haven’t read The Golden Gandhi Statue from America for a
while, but I have it set aside for a reread. That book had a big influence on
me as it encouraged me to continue writing short fiction, short fiction that
didn’t have to follow conventional lines, or even have a narrative in the
traditional sense. I liked what Misra said about his work not appearing in
bookstores because bookstores sold products called books. That resonated with
me deeply, as independent voices rarely find themselves stocked in bookstores
here in SA. And I love that Misra dedicated the book to Jean-Luc Godard, whom,
Misra says, taught him language.
Sky Dreaming, a chapbook of poems by you was published by Graffiti Arts
Collective in 2011. I still remember Pravasan [Pillay] handing over the cover design of
this book to me in Sweden in the venue where I was doing my poetry reading.
Mouni Mondal did a small chapbook translating a few poems from this book
in Bengali and she did a good job. Now this year we will be doing another
poetry chap of yours, Somewhere else. Tell us about this new project and how
you usually compose a poem?
Somewhere else is a collection of 26 poems, composed over the past four or
five years. Some of them were inspired by a trip I took to Turkey in 2019. As
usual with me, some of them are prose poems. And most of them quite surreal.
Poems come to me – usually when I least expect it, not when I am thinking of
writing. I can’t force poems out. I can’t sit down and decide to write a poem. The poem comes or it doesn’t. And while the initial inspiration may see the
poem written down spontaneously, I do spend a lot of time on revision. I
believe in craft in poetry.
I admire that work of yours on Sinclair Beiles, what a book. His books of
poems are hard to find here. I wish I had a few so that I can translate his
poems in Bengali. A beat poet who never got any recognition. What was the
reason behind that?
There are a few reasons behind Beiles’s lack of recognition as a poet.
First, from a South African literary perspective, he spent much of life outside
the country. He wasn’t an active participant in the local literary scene until
about the 1980s, but by his own admittance he didn’t want to fit in, anyway.
Most of his publications were very small, limited editions – one chapbook in
the 1970s was only 20 copies – another collection, in the 1990s, was only four
copies. This has made access to his work very difficult. In fact, after the
publication of the first edition of Who was Sinclair Beiles? in 2009, I found a
chapbook of his I had not been previously aware of. Even the University of
South Africa, which has most of his titles, neither had it nor had heard of it.
How is the independent writers' scene in SA? Here I count on the young
guns.
The independent writing scene is still around, and always will be,
hopefully. South Africa has always had independent voices. One of the greatest
threats to independent voices, in South Africa and elsewhere, is
self-censorship: giving in and producing what is politically, culturally or commercially
acceptable – and marketable. The temptation to produce what will generate applause
and accolades – market success. The main challenge for independent writers,
however, is the lack of publishing outlets and the ability to find readers. We
need more small, independent presses in South Africa that publish quality,
innovative work. We could do with more journals, and certainly more online
journals.
