Tributaries: Natasha Ramoutar + Baby Cerberus

Read “Packing List”
from Baby Cerberus

Packing List

Sometimes the lulling songs of the waves
won’t fit neatly between your socks and T-shirts
when the handful of stars you caught are dancing around,
wrecking the pressed lavender and slathering your face cream
I don’t think you’ll be able to get this through customs
with the forest you gathered screeching so loud
Forests only like sweaters or maybe flannels
It’s been some time since I packed a forest –
I still feel bad about the four flowers I left
pressed in a picture frame on the Greyhound bus
I can’t remember the shape of their petals
but I know what it’s like to pack the entire sun
into a duffel bag for an overnight trip: the urge
to keep something radiating and precious near
That’s how I burned holes through my favourite dress,
ripped it up and used it to patch old memories
Listen, I’ll sit on this suitcase and you can close it
Just try not to get the North Wind caught in the zipper –
He’s nostalgic and we’ll be stuck here all night

An interview with poet Natasha Ramoutar

All Lit Up: Can you tell us a bit about your book and how it came to be? How did you come to write “Packing List” and how is it representative of your collection?  

Natasha Ramoutar: Baby Cerberus came to be much in the same way as my previous poetry collection – by accident. When it comes to poetry, my writing is often unplanned and it’s only when I’ve accumulated a number of poems that I start to realize I have a collection and start to implement constraints.

The themes emerged while putting together Baby Cerberus were how nostalgia and the passage of time can affect how we remember important memories and items, what we do with physical ephemera and technology that are now out of style, and how we remember and care for each other. Another recurring theme that my editor Paul Vermeersch pointed out was the way I put classical literature and mythology alongside the pop culture of today.

“Packing List” is a great example of these themes in this collection. The speaker is earnest and nostalgic both for items she has tried to pack before – like a “handful of stars” – and the items she has lost. By the end of the poem, the speaker warns the subject about the North Wind, also known as Boreas in Greek mythology, bringing together the modern and classical references.

ALU: What drew you to poetry? What do you most value about poetry?

Natasha Ramoutar: I was first drawn to poetry because of the classics like Homer’s The Iliad. I have always been interested in sound and rhythm and the way that poets manipulate that in their linework.

My favourite thing about poetry is the way that it forces me to slow down. In the world we live in where it feels like everything is competing for our attention and that everything moves very quickly, poetry is a welcomed break for me to sit down, take a break, and really savour a poem.

ALU: Choose a non-written piece of art (e.g. a song / album, painting, sculpture, or film) that you feel is a “sister city” or companion to your collection.

Natasha Ramoutar: One of my poems in Baby Cerberus references a video game called Final Fantasy XV and this game is the perfect “sister city” for my collection. The video game functions as a road trip as the protagonist, Noctis, travels with his three best friends across Lucis. While the world itself is rife with danger and the Noctis faces a devastating loss at the beginning of the game, the four characters find comfort in each other’s company as they camp, fish and travel together. In my opinion, the game encapsulates what it means to remember and care for one another.

Natasha recommends…
“Season of Sunflowers” from Manahil Bandukwala’s
Heliotropia (Brick Books)

ALU: Why did you choose Manahil Bandukwala’s poem “Season of Sunflowers” from her collection Heliotropia? What do you love most about this particular poem?

Natasha Ramoutar: Manahil Bandukwala’s latest collection, as the jacket copy describes, is a “meditation on love during times of social and political upheaval.” The first poem in the collection “Season of Sunflowers” perfectly sets the tone for the collection as a slow meditation that is lush with beautiful images. I think my poem “Packing List” could be a cousin as they are both poems that are slow, thoughtful, and curious.

“Season of Sunflowers” is a poem where each striking image unfurls further. It looks at a river or the process of unstitching from different angles, guiding the reader to a new viewpoint each time. This is especially delightful when the end of the poem marries the content and form together as the speaker says, “The subject / of love is constantly changing, but look, so is my love.”

Season of Sunflowers

I love the sunflowers when they are taller than me
and when they are not. I love the river on a hot

day, when all grime melts into water, and even
when the day is not hot, the river still shuts off

all other voices. I love the sound of the dictionary
read aloud past midnight, not hearing any meaning

but catching bluegrass and verses between the seconds.
I love how precious seconds are, and thirds, and

fourths, and so on. There is rarely pleasure of lasting love
in a first. I love unravelling stitches and unravelling

at the end of a long day that has been full of love or not.
Each day can hold one thing to love, like the love of fresh

red sumac or a hug that lasts, really lasts. The subject
of love is constantly changing, but look, so is my love.

Reprinted with permission from Brick Books.

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Natasha Ramoutar is a writer of Indo-Guyanese descent from Toronto. Her debut collection of poetry, Bittersweet, published in 2020 by Mawenzi House, was shortlisted for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award. She was the editor of FEEL WAYS, an anthology of Scarborough literature. She is a senior editor with Augur Magazine and serves on the editorial board at Wolsak & Wynn. Baby Cerberus is her second poetry collection.

Photo of Natasha credit Abynaya Kousikan.

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Thanks to Natasha for answering our questions, and to Wolsak & Wynn for the text of “Packing List” from Baby Cerberus, which is available to order now (and get 15% off with the code TRIBUTARIES until April 30!). Thanks also to Brick Books for the text of “Season of Sunflowers” from Manahil Bandukwala’s Heliotropia.

Follow our NPM series all month long to discover new poetry or connect with old favourites, and visit our poetry shop here.