Born on 22 January 1951 in Šiauliai.
In 1973 graduated from Vilnius Engineering Construction Institute, graduated as a road construction engineer. In 1973-1975 he served as an officer in the Soviet Army. 1975-1988 worked as an engineer in various construction organisations in Druskininkai; 1988-1991 freelance writer, 1991-1993 Deputy Minister of Culture and Education of the Republic of Lithuania, 1993-1995 consultant to the Union of Lithuanian Cities, 1995-1996 Vice-Mayor of Druskininkai, 1996-1998 Director of the publishing house Vaga, 1998-2000 Minister of Education of the Republic of Lithuania, 2001-2014 editor-in-chief of the weekly magazine Literatūra ir mensas. Member of the Lithuanian PEN Centre since 1989, its chairman in 1991-1995. Chairman of the Board of Poetic Autumn of Druskininkai since 1990. President of the Lithuanian Artists' Association, member of the boards of the Lithuanian National Radio and Television and the Press, Radio and Television Support Fund. He has translated and published in the press and anthologies poems by E. E. Cummings, Ted Hughes, John Keats, Adam Mickiewicz, Czesław Miłosz, Adam Naruševičius, Wisława Szymborska and other authors, Rigveda hymns, numerous essays, critical articles, short stories, and an explanation to the Old Testament (1990). Platel's poems have been translated and published in English, Armenian, Belarusian, Bulgarian, Czech, Czech, Estonian, Galician, Gaelic, Greek, Georgian, French, German, Georgian, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Latvian, Latvian, Polish, Macedonian, Norwegian, Portuguese, French, Russian, Slovene, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Hungarian, Ukrainian and magazine anthologies.