You think you know people;
But then you don’t!
Never!
We all are mysterious beings
Unknown to the other …
The book is categorized into 17 sections, covering almost everything
that one encounters in the long road of life during the golden years of one’s
existence. The beautiful, carefully chosen illustrations along with the concise
description of each category make it even more appealing and dear to hold and
get lost in the magic of words, like tiny raindrops falling silently in unison.
While going through this book you’ll find a companion who shares your worries and
has seen it all. The poet instructs to ‘be your own pillar’.
Friendship, love, existentialism, hope, power of words,
void, melancholy, solitude and time, the poems cover it all and much more. The
imageries are spellbinding, for instance ‘If only life could be as smooth,
serene and untroubled like a soft falling leaf borne by the gentle breeze’, ‘If
only our love could be like the sea waves- requiting and reciprocating’, etc. There’s
a philosophical element that can’t be missed, both wisdom and a sense of disillusionment
with the world. The poems take the reader to a world that’s beyond black and
white, with intricacies and complexities.
Ain’t love a funny thing?
The close we hold, the far it goes
The more we want, the less we get
The more we get, the less we care
A poet is not just a writer, but an avid reader too, harboring
a great love for language and words. The poet’s love for reading is well captured
in the lines below:
I wept n laughed, lost n won
Was dumped n loved, saw death & birth
I flew n swam, Ooh-ed & Aah-ed
Yes. All I did is read a book
‘I know why the caged bird sings’ resonates with Maya
Angelou’s Caged Bird, highlighting the plight of a bird, whose act of caging
itself becomes a means of self-protection from the unjust world.
‘She is caged….
Because-
She would rather be caged than be hurt by others….’
Another poem ‘A pair of bulging Flesh and a Hole’ is a
powerful, direct rant that shows the disgust felt by women living in a world
that never ceases to reduce them to an object, commodity, and a vulnerable
being.
‘A Stop’ covers the
effects of a pandemic that ‘All it took is a Micro-organism to topple the GREAT
Super Powers.’ Time indeed taught a lesson to all.
While perusing, one is certainly going to experience the
sheer simplicity and depth of lines, like ‘You grow older only to wish you
hadn’t’. One of the poem ‘What would you do with your love?’ asks a significant
question to the self-proclaimed lovers out there. ‘Would you water it, to
let it grow or would you pluck it, to keep it with you?’
It’s hard to evaluate poetry since it emanates from a poet’s
heart and is meant to strike the reader’s heart. The book ends with ‘I
yearned to touch so much’. It’s up to the reader to decide how much was
touched and how well he/she could relate to it. On my part I really enjoyed it
and would recommend it all the poetry and simplicity lovers out there!
Go Read and Enjoy!
