Writing is a natural talent that flows from within and it’s not the sort of skill you can easily learn; there must be passion, writer Pearl Lewis said.
Literary talent is not something that our country lacks but rather it’s something that lacks support and development. Pearl is among the vast majority of Guyanese writers who are heartbroken about the harsh fact that they can’t make their living doing what they love.
Guyana, the 52-year-old said, does not value its literature as much as it should and it does not seem to realize that the writers of today will create the literary history of tomorrow. She believes that forward linkages, such as opportunities for animating stories, need to be introduced here.
Pearl was first featured in The Scene during January for what she had described as her “accidental” singing stint at last year’s Mashramani Calypso Competition. However, in a vibrant voice she’d described writing as her first love. It always holds a place close to her heart, she’d said.
Her years of hard work have finally brought forth fruits; she was recently the recipient of the first, second and third place prizes of the Guyana Annual’s Rajkumari Singh Poetry for Children category for 2008-2009. The Guyana Annual is a yearly publication which encourages local writers to cultivate their work.
“Animals Marathon Race” is the poem which earned Pearl the first prize. The piece spins a fun upbeat tale of a race in the animal kingdom. Pearl explained that it has been in her collection of works since she started writing in 1995.
The first verse:
It was the most exciting day in the animal kingdom,
A marathon race had to be run,
They came to compete by the thousands,
Some fat, some thin, some long, some round.
A period of grief, Pearl recalled, was responsible for awakening the fountain of creativity within her. “Carl and Compton” and “Turtles” earned Pearl the Guyana Annual’s second and third prizes, respectively. Pearl described “Carl and Compton” as a tale of nature. It tells of the relationship between a cat and dog.
“A dog will chase a cat and that’s how they will live,” Pearl said. “But if those two animals were to live at peace then they’d be unhappy because that’s how nature made them; to be at war. It’s that story of happiness just the way they are that ‘Carl and Compton’ tells.”
The poem “Turtles” describes for children in very colourful rhymes the life of the animal. However, it presents a rather interesting question to set the young mind, and even those of adults; what sound does a turtle make?
Being a published children’s writer is Pearl’s dream which she is steadily working toward achieving. She admitted that the more technical aspects of composing poetry like the use rhyme, rhythm and literary devices are never on her mind. The words, she said, just flow from within.
The woman has had no formal training in writing but believes that this isn’t necessary. Once the passion is there, once the talent is there then definitely the stories and the poetry will eventually come. A vivid imagination is among the priceless tools needed to be a good writer, Pearl said.
Meanwhile, she opined that there should be a Writer’s Association established in Guyana. An association needs to be there, she stressed, to offer support to writers and perhaps some amount of financial help.
Pearl has written short stories, poems and songs which she’s had recently recorded. It’s a long fight, she said, to become an established artist of any kind. However, if that desire is strong enough, if that need to achieve continues to eat at you then one day, she said, you’ll get where you want to be.
As the lyrics of one of Pearl’s recorded songs goes “…it’s hard to climb those mountains when you don’t even have a dime…” This aptly describes the pool many Guyanese writers including Pearl find themselves almost drowning in.
