Shortly before I left for England I put my poems into a slim volume of poetry with the help of my friends in Coimbatore. It was brought out only when I was in UK. The first edition didn’t bring me to anyone’s notice except it was printed in a book form! So poor was the whole process and I only possess a rare specimen for the love of its existence!
The poems I wrote in UK show the circumstances in which they were written, one mourning the death of Pasternak, the English snow etc. Bowra at the meeting mentioned in the beginning recited much Pasternak and as much of Dom Moraes. Dom was to become my lifelong friend later. Our friendship continues all these years, through Dom’s various phases of life here in India. I continue to keep in touch with Dom’s poems and I bought his latest collection the other day, “Typed with a finger” and I enjoyed many hours of pleasure in reading through his highly mature lines. Each line a gem!
Back in India, I engaged myself in various activities and one was publishing a literary magazine in Tamil! Though it was a slim volume it attracted lot of attention and won for me an election to the State Legislative Council! It also attracted a lot of poets to its column; some of them are established poets today!
I ventured to bring out a second edition of my poems in 1965. It contained very few new poems and some old, rather immature poems were dropped. Even then it was again a slim edition and circulated privately. That is all to my poetry writing all these years!
Since 1965, I didn’t write a single line of poetry! My life went through lots of turbulent phases, some pleasant, some very unpleasant! My poetry died or was buried beneath life’s many burdens! I couldn’t figure out!