Kavishinee Shangar dreamed of publishing her own poetry collection when she was fifteen.Now as an A/L student, her debut poetry collection, “From My Heart to Yours” holds a much deeper backstory to it that resonates deeply with her journey as a teenager and as a writer.
30Kavishinee’s passion for language blossomed and grew due to her habit of reading from a young age. However writing was something that took part in her life when the world started changing during the pandemic.
This was a turning point in Kavishinee’s life and also the birthplace for the idea behind her poetry collection.
“During Covid, everything was changing, even myself. I had studied literature and was exposed to good literary work and wanted to try out writing myself. I started by writing short stories but then realised that I have a better knack at poetry,” she said.
She created a social media page for her poems and then later at the beginning of 2022, decided to write her own poetry book.
First poem
Kavishinee’s first poem was about hers and her friend’s late grandfathers, “To: Mine and My Friend’s Grandpa, I hope you rest in peace…” To Kavishinee, poetry thus became a grounding activity and a coping mechanism. “I love writing poems because it’s my individual creation and no one has done it before. It’s something both personal and permanent,” she said.
Kavishinee wanted to write poetry for everyone, for all walks of life, and to sentiments both good, bad and in between. Anyone can find a piece of themselves being addressed in her poetry, therefore, anyone can find bits of beautifully crafted experiences that they can relate to in her book. Adding to that, for the poet herself, every poem holds a certain deep and personal significance.
To Kavishinee, writing poetry was more of a need than a want. Only by writing, she was able to feel a sense of control in her life during a time where both her world and the world around her was changing drastically. “I exaggerated the pain, the love, the hope and every other emotion in my poetry so that both I, as a writer and my readers can feel it more deeply. I think that this is the beauty of literature. You can get lost in it and I love it,” she said. Writing “From My Heart to Yours” is a journey of self-discovery for Kavishinee and the book itself is a milestone of her life. The entire process shed light on and changed Kavishinee’s perspectives, values and attitude towards herself and her relationships with people.
Vital changes took place in her life such as changing houses and forming new friendships. Kavishinee doesn’t have some of the same friends she had before she started writing her poetry collection. “I learned a lot about myself,” she said. “I found friends more aligned to me and realised that within a book, just how much I can change.”
Extrovert
Writing these poems made her discover sides to her that she didn’t notice before. It made her realise that she’s an extrovert and that she needs to make more social connections and expand her circle. Writing poetry also taught her to be more open-minded and self-aware. Kavishinee writes a lot of poetry on romance but hasn’t been in an actual romantic involvement yet. What’s inspiring is that through writing love poems, she realised that she has so much love to give. “By being a poet, I understood how much I can give to this world and how much I want from this world,” she said.
Every single poem in her collection is addressed to someone who has gone through specific experiences in their lives such as “To: The Confused Ones, To: Every Little Boy, To: Anyone Entering Anyone’s Heart and To: The Ones Who Complete Themselves, while also tapping into parts of her own finer feelings. “The book’s title says everything. It’s literally my 15-17 heart. And now my heart is in the readers’ hands,” Kavishnee said.
She wants her readers to enjoy the book as much as she has enjoyed writing it, and for them to relate to the sentiments in her poetry, even the painful ones.
Kavishinee likes being busy. She’s the president of the Commerce Union, president of the English Literary Association, a prefect turned student counsellor and also a member of the English club.
“I’m grateful to my parents for giving me a good education at Asian International School because my environment helped me a lot,” she said fondly. Kavishinee stressed that her school and teachers were instrumental in shaping her journey as a writer.
Big dreams
The young poet’s writing process depends on her muses and inspirations. She never forces herself to write since she believes that her work holds value mostly when it flows to her naturally and compares poetry writing to songwriting. Kavishinee, however, has big dreams for her collection and takes humble pride in her work.
“This book is a much unexpected one. Even if I don’t publish again, I’m proud of what I have achieved with this book,” she said.
Kavishinee wanted her collection of poetry to be published mainly because she wanted to share her work with a wider audience. Prior to the publication, she had never shown her work to most of her family and friends as well and was rather hesitant to share her work with her close people. “From my Heart to Yours”, therefore, also serves as a stepping stone for Kavishinee’s newfound confidence as a poet.
“I don’t think I’m good at poetry and I still think I’m not. I was writing this book until the day I gave it to the editor and was adding poems mid-editing as well,” she recalled.
Kavishinee’s dream of becoming a published poet one day and the enthusiasm to share her work with the world kept her going and gave her the determination to work with the publisher until the day she finally held the book in her hands. And this is something that would give her self-satisfaction and gratification for the rest of her life.
Kavishinee believes that everyone should begin somewhere if they feel the need to write. Just like one of her poetry titles in the book, “To: Every Writer, I hope you keep leaving your mark on paper…”
