It is not every day that I read a poetry book, but whenever I do, I make sure I totally get into it. With some books, you need to delve deep and reread to grasp the matter, while there are some books that shake our soul and linger with us probably for a very long time. And believe me whenever I get a soul-stirring poetry book, I could never stop at just one read. I reread it and keep the highlighted content with me lifetime, I try to decipher the most underlying meaning I could get from its stanzas or one-liners. If there is a sense of profundity – that is magic to me.
This 116 pages book that I read on Kindle many a time so far, it is a special book to me. Not because it is about contemporary Covid theme but I found something unusual in it that I couldn’t stop myself reading it over and again. This collection is sheer beauty. Simple wording! Powerful influence! Yet intense! There is something charming about this mother and daughter duo writing about the most dreaded pandemic the entire human race facing.
The book has around 9 topics, ranging from Covid 19 to social distancing to fear and everything in between. The authors build the tempo topic by topic. I loved that sensation. In the first topic that is Covid 19 – the authors have referred this pandemic not an ounce less than devil: where did this devil come from? This segment is like a preface to the following poems. As the segments pass by, the tempo builds on.
From the Social Distancing, this stanza pierced through my heart:
Like the song of the dove,
But please don’t come
Any closer today!
Was the social distancing needed? Did we take it positively? Wasn’t the virus a wall between two lovers, mother and a daughter, two friends…
We could have doubted our intentions but it was needed and the authors have presented its needs and doubts with an equal élan.
Likewise, there are other segments too that are inevitably attached with the Covid pandemic such as Fear, Pain, Solitude. But the most highlighted segments are Abuse, Fear, and Pain. I sympathize with the situations of the wives, mothers, and daughters. The Covid 19 was really cruel in its clutches to cage them…making them bereaved of their freedom at school or by taking the jobs of fathers.
This good one is from Solitude:
And I sit all day talking to walls
Oh heaven, can this please
Come to an end
So I can for once roam the streets
And not the same old halls?
In the poetry, the connection between halls and streets is mind blowing and there was a constant appeal for setting someone free. Who was that? It is you and me…no one else…right?
I can go on discussing the length and the breadth of the book as per my mood swings but that I will try doing that on any podcast event.
Overall, you must have guessed that I am already in love with the book! So…what next. Nothing! It is 5 out of 5! This is the collection that reminded me my tough days and the poems were staring back at me.
ibooksta 