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Emerging poet, physics student to sign books Tuesday

Written by Sohana Kutub, Contributor to The Shorthorn

Thursday, 29 January 2009 08:21 PM

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When loneliness strikes the holy life
It ain’t fun when no one’s beside
No one is there to speak with
Not even evil like you selfish
Spoil me for pleasure and give me the pain
Rapist, come and rape me again

Swapnil Baral unintentionally found himself publishing his “overwhelming” feelings.

The physics junior published a book of poems in November called Hidden Facts and will have a book signing at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday at North Lake College in Irving.

Baral said he never wrote with the intention to publish. He was simply overwhelmed with feeling and just put it down on paper.

The book includes poems touching on aspects of life that can be interpreted differently depending on who reads it, he said.

“I try to write about love, nature, philosophy, eroticism — something from all aspects of life,” he said. “There’s something for everyone. There’s something for people who have fallen in love, never been in love and even something for people who are trying to fall in love.”

Baral said he decided to publish the poems because he felt that limiting them in his diary would not allow them to be free.

“I thought if I kept these poems to myself, I would not let these birds fly in the sky,” he said. “As Emily Dickinson has written in context of publishing her poems: ‘Be gentle to new laid eggs. For eggs are brilliant things. They cannot fly until they hatched. And have a pair of wings.’ ”

Baral said he first wanted to publish the book in the U.S., but after consulting with the Dallas County Community College District Chancellor, Wright L. Lassiter, Jr., Baral decided to take his suggestion — publish the book in Nepal, where Baral was born and raised, to minimize costs.

“My dad knows different publishers, so he assisted me to select the right publisher to submit the manuscript,” Baral said. “Otherwise, I would have been overwhelmed by the list of publishers.”

Baral, having met Lassiter at an honor society induction where Lassiter was the keynote speaker, wanted him to write the forward for his collection. Lassiter, a poet himself, read over the manuscript and agreed.

Lassiter wrote in his forward, “I was intrigued and impressed with the boldness of the titles of the poems contained in this volume. They are personal. They touch you. They push the reader to be reflective and contemplative. Some even surprise you. For example, the poem titled — ‘Rape Me Again.’ ”

Biomedical engineering junior and friend Gokarna Kc said Baral’s work is very raw.

“Swapnil is like a countryside boy, to be specific,” Kc said. “The poems are about experience.”

Baral started writing early in his childhood. He moved to the U.S. in Fall 2006 and attended The University of North Alabama for one semester and later transferred to North Lake College. This is his first semester at UT Arlington.

Although physics and poetry may seem like opposites, Baral said they’re connected.

“I believe that nature behaves in a fixed, determined way, which can be understood through physics,” Baral said. “Mathematics and poetry both describe nature. Math is the language of physics. Physics and poetry both, therefore, describes nature I want to understand. Therefore I love doing physics and poetry. I do not want to study physics because it provides a bright career — I just love studying it.”

For more information on Swapnil Baral and his book, visit his Web site at www.hiddenpoetry.com.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 18 February 2009 03:59 PM )

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