NILAVRONILL TALKING WITH
POET OF THE MONTH
MARK HEATHCOTE
APRIL 2025
NilavroNill: Welcome to Our Poetry Archive, dear poet. What are the factors that have influenced you immensely in the growing phase of your literary life. When, most probably you were not certain of your future as a poet or writer. Is there anyone in your life, influenced you personally to develop your literary skills? Or inspire you to become a poet? Do you think society as a whole is the key factor in shaping up you as a poet, or your poetry altogether?
MARK HEATHCOTE: I became a poet because it is who I believe, at some fundamental minimalistic level, is who I am. The beauty of the world and man’s search through art and literature have always inspired my imagination. My influences are many, but no one has helped with my literary development or skills. And as to that end, I have no imitators or anyone I wish to imitate.
NilavroNill: Is it possible to put into the words everything that as a poet you wish to express literarily? If not, why?
MARK HEATHCOTE: We can strive to do just that, but as two people can never see the same colour the same, the reality of that is far too unrealistic. We are all clutching at straws, making a fist of it as best we can. It takes imagination to dot all the dots in the night sky and find a Pegasus or an Ursa Major bear, but that's what stargazers do as a matter of fact for you and not by idle chance alone.
NilavroNill: Do you agree with John Keats (1795-1821) on his ardent believe, “Truth is beauty, beauty is truth”? Even if we take for instance the wars especially in Europe or the fall out of second world war in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, how can we manage to reconcile between those truths with beauty as promulgated by Keats?
MARK HEATHCOTE: Truth is a transient whisper or hurricane unleashed by those who own the wind beneath your wings. And if you testify against it, you are bound to fall foul and have your wings burnt, clipped, or even removed by force. Truth is a rare commodity indeed that is controlled at every level. Truth begins with self-knowledge and can’t be found anywhere else. This is known as enlightenment and is the only beauty stemming out of truth. Eyes open, not closed. And yet how many of us are true to ourselves? All leaders have an agenda, and even with the best intentions possible, an illusion has to be manufactured. If these illusions miserably fail, war ensues; now that war is used, it controls the disenfranchised, the dissatisfied masses. And then a new truth is cultivated to lead us all on a new ideological path of destruction. Truth.
NilavroNill: Too many writers believe imagery is an essential part of poetry. Do you agree this notion? Even if we consider Leonardo da Vinci’s words that poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen.
MARK HEATHCOTE: Does not the phrasing of this question give leaning to its answer itself? I myself, speaking for myself, am only moderately impressed by imagery and language expressing itself to our many greedy senses like a banquet table for demigods to devour but ultimately leave me asking what was the point of that meal. I want the bones, the gristle, the marrow. That is not to say I dislike flowery language that uses metaphor well in an altogether naturalistic credible way. After all, the world is a beautiful, incredible place.
NilavroNill: Do you believe, passionately falling in love with a particular language is essential to excel in poetical ventures? And is it possible to write poems in multiple languages preserving same literary quality? We would like to know your own experiences.
MARK HEATHCOTE: Having only known one language all my life and struggling with dyslexia, I feel I am not equipped to answer this question.
As for preserving the same literary quality? I would say from my own reading experience it is possible.
NilavroNill: Do you consider poetry as an emotional outbursts of poet’s personal sentiments? Or is it a long journey to realize and express the universal sentiments beyond all personal limitations? Again, we want to understand your views through your personal experiences of your literary life as a poet.
MARK HEATHCOTE: There are a lot of tiresome disciplines to go through to make any art form work. It is an exhausting pastiche to create anything of any real value or worth. But universal sentiments inevitably weave their way into the fabric. We spin cocoons and hope newly un-abandoned, emerging butterflies will take flight. Hope these butterflies will not only dazzle us but also have some lingering instinctive truth to illuminate themselves to many others.
NilavroNill: I would like to quote T. S. Eliot, “No poet, no artist of any art, has his complete meaning alone. His significance, his appreciation is the appreciation of his relation to the dead poets and artists. You cannot value him alone; you must set him for contrast and comparison among the dead.” We would like to know your views in details on Eliot’s comments.
MARK HEATHCOTE: We have reached a point in history and time that leads us back to our infancy; a path of water memory of string theory and fractals, the thumbprint of God and the Fibonacci Sequence, and the golden angle in nature, we have created math and machines we no longer understand as we sit with our abacuses, all fingers and thumbs, explaining how nothing, in theory, exists at all. How we are all made of atoms and how an atom is 99.99% empty and has never touched anything else. How repulsions at a lower frequency are said to touch and feel like two magnets pushing each other apart is how we get to feel anything ourselves. Tell your lover that and see how her face squirms and turns towards the bedroom wall. Tell a child having a bullet removed there’s nothing to fear and maybe you’re not even here. Take a quantum leap of faith, why don't you? And teleport right out of here. The absences and the space between words are also said to be where poetic meanings can be best found. Impressionism, the art of abstraction, is an almost emotional free-for-all that fulfils the whole and makes it more complete by its absences. Impressionism, surrealism, expressionism, etc., and poetry all have this ability to be at once timeless and of their own time, yet all have their lineage owing to an earlier representation. We are but rings within the same tree of knowledge—consciousness observing itself. Through the amber eyes of a distant snake.
NilavroNill: Would you consider, it should be the goal of a poet to enlightens the readers towards much greater apprehensions as well as appreciations of life and eternity in general? Or is it better to write poems only to console the poet’s soul? Do you believe, literature can eventually help people to uplift human conscience?
MARK HEATHCOTE: It is the poet’s job to examine and bring not solutions but a shared understanding of our limitations to the forefront—so that we can make sounder judgements and find within each other more self-forgiveness and growth beyond our current modes and means. Therefore, the poet enlightens cathartically by examining his inner and outer turmoil and the turmoil of all. It is a social petri dish hoping to make connections and contaminate the rest by mutual consent.
NilavroNill: According to Tagore, poetry is essentially something to enjoy and not to comprehend mere meanings. What are your thoughts on this regard? What do you expect from your readers, should they enjoy your poems more than comprehend the essential meanings or both?
MARK HEATHCOTE: Many poems spring from the subconscious, a voice some might describe or perceive as the muse. We are all observing these voices and thoughts in our heads as our own. But on some deeper level, it is a shared universal consciousness that requires no comprehension or meaning. The sky, after all, is just the sky. The sea is just the sea. It is the music of existence examining itself. Its meaning changes with each reader and, at times, with each reading, even for the author. A failed poem is a poem that hasn’t nearly listened closely enough to what is not near hearable to begin with. The symphony of life is a river of ice, frozen but forever moving forward, liquid but solid as a nugget of gold. A remnant of a past as precious as your own perceived soul.
NilavroNill: Humanity has suffered immensely in the past, and is still suffering around the world. We all know it well. As a poet or even as a literary person, how do you foresee the future of mankind?
MARK HEATHCOTE: Mankind hasn't ever learnt from his past mistakes, and he will not do so moving forward unaided. AI is evolving rapidly and might be a positive force for some actual good in shaping the planet's future and finding answers to some of our shared pressing problems, such as disease, hunger, and an overcrowded population. As we advance with AI guidance, I hope the cause and causality of us waging any war showing any hatred or greed envy for ever-expanding fiscal rewards may also slowly dissipate like receding cancer; we can all live and hope, can’t we?
MARK ANDREW HEATHCOTE
Is an adult learning difficulties support worker. His poems have been published in journals, magazines, and anthologies online and in print. He is from Manchester and resides in the UK. Mark is the author of “In Perpetuity” and “Back on Earth,” two books of poems published by Creative Talents Unleashed.
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