SK: … But my first love was poetry.
PP: Explain this great love for poetry.
SK: Someone explained poetry as one of the most elevated and expressive forms of writing. You have to search in the upper canals, the upper chambers of the brain, even if some of the thoughts are granted by the muses, you need to do additional work, to coordinate those thoughts and words.
PP: And it takes some doing to get it right; I know.
SK: Facts and realities must be presented in the most beautiful manner possible; you just don’t write them down bluntly.
PP: Syble, let me pose the same question: What drew you to poetry?
SD: I was a journalist before; then I went into the Press because Frank Pilgrim made it so exciting. At that time, I was the only woman at the Daily Argosy; then I became Woman’s Page Editor. And there my first poems were published; in my own column called, ‘Just between us’.
I started that column the year before I got married, and I wrote it for twelve years, and worked for the magnificent sum of $3.50 a column. But I enjoyed it anyway.
A. J. [Seymour] was very influential; he talked about poetry and what it should be.
There was a prose poem which I wrote (‘What is Art’) originally for Mitzie Townsend and read at her funeral as a celebration of the passing of an artist, because she was a multitalented artist.
But Martin Carter said: ‘You have a problem, because, as a journalist, you want to put down all the facts — how, what, where and how. As a poet, you have to put it in a different way, a different perspective.’
We went back and forth, belabouring the point until he said if the poet looks at a silk cotton tree and writes the sun rises, it is either you’re with him or you’re not. Then he went on to advise me on cutting out the ands and buts and let the poem flow like bread, let the dough rise, then go back to it; don’t throw away the drafts, double-space it, come back and edit it, again and again, and never throw away those drafts because you might find something you have written earlier that you like better.
A. J. Said, ‘You have see it; you have to hear it; and you have to feel it. Importantly, you have to see it on the page; you must want to read it, because it is so
well set out. You must let the readers use their imagination; you must not tell them everything.’ And I must come back to Martin. He said it [the poems] must make you think…
PP: Sheila, you itching to say something?
SK: As she was talking about Martin, I remember something else he said. He said that whenever someone asked him about a poem and its meaning, he would reply with a question; something like this… ‘What inference you got from it? You tell me what you think of it.’ This usually draws forth a discussion, and eventually, the person would come to an understanding.
PP: He teases out an answer. Let’s move to themes in your writing; the writing by the women.
SK: In that anthology, ‘Guyana Drums’, we looked at various themes. Mrs Burnham did the Foreword in that book, in which she did say all of mine [poems] were patriotic; and so were some by Syble.
PP: Syble, other themes like relationships… Are women better able to tease out the truth about relationships?
SD: Yes. And that’s what I liked about Mitzie’s work…
PP: And Shana Yardan’s…
SD: Shana Yardan too. When Allister [Syble’s elder son] and I got together to do the book for my 60th birthday (which we called ‘Random Harvest’), we found that all of our poems were about love and relationships; sometimes with your country, and everything else. So we found we were writing on different forms, different faces of love.
One other thing I’d like to clear up. We were not conscious of a woman’s group; we were conscious of a group of writers. In fact, that was the first time we got together as women. But as I said, we were writers, and we respected each other; and we tried to help each other.
PP: What did the writers group do as a body, Sheila?
SK: One very important thing that I know we did was that we met at various homes. We met one night per week, and that had nothing to do with the regular monthly meetings. At that one-evening-per-week meeting, any effort that was made by any writer was read as a sort of experimental try-out among ourselves for reaction and responses.
SD: What year was that?
SK: It was in the 1960s… Let me make this very important point, because it could be an inducement for the younger writers. We uses to meet and make constructive criticism…
PP: How did you take the criticism?
SK: Good, you know. We took it well. A session would go like this: ‘I think you have the two parties agreeing too much; there isn’t enough conflict between them…’
PP: This was for fiction writing?
SK: Yes. But some comments also applied to poetry.
PP: In this way, you helped each other develop.
SK: Sometimes we may look at the language; writing for different age groups, using a particular language for children under a certain age.
PP: So you grew together.
SK: Yes, we grew and developed together.
SD: Honest and constructive criticism is very good, because I was able go back to my work and fiddle a bit more. And deep down inside, I saw the difference, and felt good about my efforts.
PP: I like what I hear; the story is the same when writers make an effort to get together, having that enabling atmosphere to create.
SK: It would be remiss of us if we neglect to include the contribution of the men. Frank Pilgrim was the President of PEN (Guyana) for a number of years; he was succeeded by Rajkumari Singh. Besides Frank, we had Donald Trotman… Henry Josiah…
SD: Henry Josiah was very active; he helped me a lot.
SK: …John Campbell; Sheik Sadeek…
SD: He was a publisher, and nothing stopped him; it was a great time for the arts.
PP: That is how I started by saying the 1950s and the 1960s were the golden era of Guyanese Literature, and you were its Golden Girls.
And I am happy for this insight into the literature of that era. The meetings; the critique sessions; the honing of your art and craft; the overall development of Guyanese Literature.
(To respond to this author, either call him on (592) 226-0065 or send him an email: oraltradition2002@yahoo.com)
