Book Facts

Sri Lankan poetry is generally of a high standard, but in my opinion relies too much on external stimuli. This could be due to the abundance of nature’s bounty, the fascinating mosaic of our colonial heritage and the complexity of inter-racial relationships.

Taarun Joel Sinniah is an exciting, dare I say, brilliant young expatriate poet residing in Australia. In his collection of poems, ‘The Protector’s Palace’, he introduces us to a unique genre of poetry, somewhat reminiscent of Sylvia Plath’s poems. His writing is sensitive and intensely introspective, strumming on the strings of our emotions.

The small ‘gem’ of his opening poem encapsulates this: This may sound silly to you Let’s just say it’s a poem But once the ties of reality shatter You control what matters Time to reconstruct reality back from the cinders Of a mind keen to resemble Something it once was But nothing could ever assemble Clarity The structure of the poems is often conventional but there is no strict meter as in: Each and every time we stop And take a moment to think About the way this world goes round And what we miss every blink The way we live our lives is flawed We have been moulded by like- minded hands Made to obey and conform And not to understand... Or with no definite structure as in: The corners of my concentration start to flicker As the far reaches of my mind start to bicker With each other, I try to keep my ideas on The task at hand: the battle to be won As I sit beneath the moon Time ticks by And the ideas of soon Becomes a distant moment Trapped in far reaches of space...

This volume comprises 38 poems described as performance poetry--Taarun himself is a spoken word poet.

The hardcover publication is elegant, the print italicised on cream paper.

It is priced at Aus $ 15 and will be available at Barefoot Bookshop. Premini Amerasinghe