Seshendra Sarma, who passed away recently, was a distinguished Telugu poet. He started his career as a translator and a romantic poet. Later, he exhibited his social concern for the plight of the common man in works like My Country, My People and Guerilla. The distinguishing feature of his poetry, however, is his fresh and vibrant imagery. The author pays a personal homage to the late poet, who has left a gaping void in Modern Telugu poetry.

The true poet is at the most sensitive point in the consciousness of a race. In fact, he is a hypersensitive seismograph responding to and recording each traumatic experience of the race. It is such an extraordinary sensitivity that distinguishes a genuine poet from the numerous poetasters all over. However, though the poet is the witness to the era of mercenary and meretricious around, he is also deeper within, responsive to the spiritual oneness underlying the external phenomena. The poet seeks to penetrate to the core of existence and body forth in his literary constructs its quintessence. In this process of exploration, the poet is assisted by his `genetic and acquired memory', which is a deep awareness of `the presentness of the past'.

Gunturu Seshendra Sarma, who passed away in the early hours of May 30, 2007, was richly endowed with this profound awareness and his poetry is indeed a tumultuous "stream of multiple consciousness", more inclusive than Bergson's "stream of consciousness". Well-read in Sanskrit, Telugu and Western literature and Poetics, Seshendra could be truly considered a synthesis of all that is best in the three traditions.

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