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Schema interviewsPoet and the Sea | The Splintered Face | Poetry
Artists, and poets in particular, are oft accused of trading in and profiting from pain. (Or to steal an old quote from an unnamed Irish band: Every poet is a thief / All kill for inspiration / and sing about their grief.)
Whether there are more elegies and requiems than joyful poems remains to be seen, but what to make of THE SPLINTERED FACE: TSUNAMI POEMS, just released by Hanging Loose Press? How to capture the utter natural and human devastation wrought by the sea without exploiting that grief and tragedy?
Indran Amirthanayagam may be more suited than most to write that book. A poet and American diplomat, Amirthanayagam was born in what is now Sri Lanka and currently resides in Vancouver. He lived in Maryland on December 26, 2004 and watched the tsunami's devastation on Sri Lanka from afar. That experience fueled a desire to both map his birth country's "splintered face" and chart its possible rebirth.
Indran Amirthanayagam launches The Splintered Face: Tsunami Poems
April 16, 2008 | 7:30 pm | Alma van Dusen and Peter Kaye room | Vancouver Public Library
Partial proceeds from the book will be donated towards tsunami relief.
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