From a very young age, around six or seven, Cameron de Silva loved writing and doing illustrations. “I always liked works such as the Sherlock Holmes stories, ‘Lord of the Rings’, and ‘Maze Runner’,” said Cameron. However, writing poetry came a little later to him as he got into poetry around 2016. Nevertheless, creative writing has always been a hobby for him since he was really young.
At school, before he left for Melbourne, Cameron would write short stories for English classes at St. Thomas’ College, Mount Lavinia. He also wrote a few poems while he was at school and one of them, titled ‘The End Is Here’ was included in the school magazine as well. This was the first time one of Cameron’s poems got published. He later went on to be the State Winner of the 2021 Somerset National Novella Writing Competition for Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania, and a finalist for the 2022 Somerset National Poetry Prize.
His new poetry collection, ‘Pear of the Orient in Prose and Verse’, published by The Jam Fruit Tree Publications includes a majority of poems based on stories Cameron was told of as a child by his grandparents. Some of these poems, he poet started writing before he left for Australia while others were already in rough drafts. Some were also told to him by his friends who got it from their grandparents as well. “A lot of these stories get brushed off as superstitions or old wives tales, but I found incredible value in them. Therefore I wanted to try and preserve a lot of those elements in my book,” said Cameron.
According to the poet, Pear of the Orient includes poetry that describes geographical places, historical places, historical figures and also a few ghost stories and includes stories of dragons as well. Overall it encompasses a lot of the island’s mythic history. But Cameron also wanted to focus on the more down-to-earth human, mundane things and everyday life in his poetry collection that he believes people take for granted.
Serious writing
What really got Cameron into serious writing and this poetry collection by extension is because of Richard de Zoysa. “He’s my personal hero,” said the poet. “I read his poem Lepidoptera in English class when I was in grade three and it was the first poem that really spoke to me on a personal level and touched my soul.”
Since then, Cameron wanted to get into writing poetry and take it as a serious medium since Richard de Zoysa has always been a huge inspiration for him to choose that route. With that in mind, Cameron went into this poetry collection wanting to treat these stories and these characters as artistic literary elements and to try and bring them to life to be appreciated by his readers.
“When I’m writing, I’d sit at my desk and do breathing exercises and activities similar to that which would get me into the proper mindset,” explained the poet. Cameron wouldn’t define himself as a perfectionist but when he’s working on a poem that is historical and mythical in which he includes certain characters, he wants to get the information as accurate as possible. He would research thoroughly before he starts writing and would check different reliable sources for his work. “If I find myself in a slump or a creative block, I’d usually get up and go for a ten minute walk,” he said.
Just as many other writers, the biggest challenge for Cameron was not being satisfied with his work when he was done with it and having to constantly revise his poetry. “Sometimes I’d look over a poem and think to myself, it would have been better if I reworded or punctuated something in a better way. I want my work to be pleasing to read and for it to roll off the tongue easily, so I try to make my poetry sound as good as possible,” he said.
Therefore, one major challenge for the poet was to make sure that both he and his publisher were satisfied with the poems that were being compiled. And since Cameron was residing in Melbourne, the next major challenge was to find the schedule to meet his publisher and finding the time to go through the work together. “I could only meet him in person once and the rest of the time we had to improvise virtually and through calls,” the poet said.
“I’d say the most memorable moment was when my publisher sent over the first draft of the cover to me,” recalled Cameron. “I worked with him on the design of the cover and I had this particular image in my head of how I wanted it to look and how I wanted it to be, which is something pleasing and beautiful that one could put on the shelf and also would make someone take it off the shelf and read.”
Cover design
Hence, seeing it for the first time was everything he could have ever wanted, since it was such a great design that they managed to put together. For the entire time that the book was getting ready, Cameron would have relatives and friends ask him about the cover design. He wanted it to be a surprise for everyone when the book drops, therefore, witnessing it come to fruition as a real book after putting in so much effort for so long was an emotional and memorable moment for him.
When Cameron was doing research for the poems all the while digging into his motherland’s history, he recalled feeling a new sense of appreciation for a lot of the things that he hadn’t really considered before. He believes that Sri Lanka, unlike other places on Earth, has an amazing rich tapestry, history, figures and stories of love, courage and betrayal.
By the end of it, after researching and getting to know these facts and places, for the poet it was like meeting Sri Lanka and experiencing it for the first time again. Throughout the journey of writing this book, Cameron grew a newfound appreciation for his country of birth and it helped him cultivate a deeper pride in being a Sri Lankan as well.
“My biggest objective with this book was to write something that I felt really satisfied with and could look back on and be really proud of,” said the poet. “I also wanted to write something that I feel like my heroes could enjoy. I wrote this with the mindset that, if I would give this to Richard de Zoysa or William Blake, what could they take out of it and what elements would they find in it?”
Cameron also hopes that his book would enhance the appreciation of Sri Lanka among readers, since our country has been through a lot and yet continues to stand with resilience. “Sri Lanka has been through countless millennia of wars, schisms, economic problems and colonisation but through all of that Sri Lanka continues to rise like a phoenix,” Cameron said.
“I want people to just have a greater appreciation for it because it is one in a billion places. I also really want anyone who reads my poetry collection to be in awe of Sri Lanka and think to themselves that this is one of those countries that one should visit at least once in their lifetime.”
If there’s one thing Cameron could leave with the readers, it is that he believes the ‘Pearl of the Orient’ would be a testament to the advice given to him by his English teacher a long time ago, which he lovingly shared with us: Combine capacity with strategy lest it remains potential. “I believe and I hope that this book lives up to those words,” he said.
