Teesta Review: A Journal of Poetry, Volume 4, Number 2. November 2021. ISSN: 2581-7094
“…I thought that words constructed us”:
A Review of Zinia Mitra’s Some Words Never Sleep
Some Words Never Sleep: Zinia Mitra, Indie Blu(e) Publishing, 2021.
pp 100. ISBN 978-951724-10-8
--- Soumyadip Ghosh
Some Words Never Sleep is the maiden
volume of poems by Zinia Mitra. The volume is an affirmation of life in the
world, a scathing diatribe of patriarchy and an unswerving presentation of
feminine consciousness. In the ‘Preface’ to this volume, the poet says that
poetry “exists between individual perception and the wakeful logical
understanding of the mind.” The present volume qualifies to capture the
cadences and rhythm of quotidian language for “words”, says the poet, “are
never quite equivalent to our emotions, never exactly equivalent to our
experience.” In addition, it has always been the poet’s objective to let the
reader share the poet’s responses to human existence. From this perspective,
the current volume is a perfect example of what modern poetry advocates and
celebrates.
Modern Indian poetry in
English emphasizes renovation and newness over dualism and standardization
striving for a new kind of poetry which should be simple, constant and of
course, humanist in nature. The originality of Some Words Never Sleep lies
in offering a new reader of poetry by way of the reinvention of Indian poetics,
and disarticulation of poetic language. In this volume of poetry, one cannot
but experience the presence of the textual persona inscribed in
language. In poems such as, ‘On reading her story’, ‘Anger’,
‘Darjeeling’, ‘All this happened a while ago’, ‘Marigolds’, ‘The Clouds’ and so
on, she unravels syntax and often orthography as a way to refuse the
authoritarian directives of poetic rules. Mitra locates her poetic persona in
the intersection between limbic images. Therefore, she creates a poetry which
is conscious of itself and critical of its subject position. Her
straightforward poetic articulation does not conform to any fixed ideology but
re-establishes a nexus between the interpretation of empirical reality and the
syntax. In Some Words Never Sleep, there are 45
succinctly-crafted poems replete with realistic imagery, mixed metaphors,
disarticulated poetic syntax, fitting diction, variants of rhymes and of
course, profound poetic voice. The pervasive poetics of Mitra’s transformative
poetry, reflected in the present volume, overtly rings with feminine
consciousness, social concerns but never fails to delineate the indigenous
reality which invites the readers’ direct participation into her poetic
explorations. In her ‘Foreword’ to the present volume, Bashabi Fraser correctly
says that Mitra’s poetic voice “defies death as it affirms life on earth.”
‘Some Words Never
Sleep’, the title poem of the volume, is more an act of language than a
discursive vent. The concluding lines of the poem, “…Some words never sleep/
they remain awake long after human eyes close/ for the last time” (Mitra 75),
show that the poet’s aesthetics does not represent the external world but a
supra-logical quality showcasing an overarching truth. In her poetry, the poet
insinuates an obvious linearity of events, intermitted concepts, words and
facts which constitute the reality. She creates meaning through her worldview
and communicates her experience(s) with her readers immediately. Poems such as,
‘Guilt’, ‘Spring’ or ‘Essences’ complete the identification of the poetic
persona and readers because the colloquial language of the poet always
incorporates the changing perception of the readers into the very structure of
each poem. In the poetic world of Zinia Mitra, compassion, warmth, liberal
imagination, poignant perception, subdued anger, barbs of scorn and longing for
human integrity are an ineluctable legacy from which none can escape. In the
‘Spring’, the poet says:
I needed to be restored
to my bodily being
and all along I had
thought that words
constructed us
it is Spring.” (71)
Truth to be told, the poetry of Mitra can be
read as a definite liberation from any of her preceding poets in Indian Poetry
in English since it always avoids any rarified language in favor of a language
which is simple, prosaic, colloquial and quotidian. Her poems such as, ‘Our
Languages’, ‘On reading her story’, ‘Inflammable’, ‘Anger, ‘Teesta I’, ‘I met
an old poet’, ‘Long-stalked yellow Flower’ and so on rigorously express the
poet’s perceptions on reality without any kind of adulation whatsoever. In the
poems, mentioned above, the language functions as a vehicle without being
esoteric. For example, in ‘Long-stalked yellow Flower’, Mitra states, “I am no
Mrs. Dalloway. I hate the clinking of glasses…” (51) and this is expressive of
the anguish of the poetic soul who utters, without any reservation, “…we are
all Clarissas / absurd perhaps in the eyes of our own Peters…” (51). Nicanor
Parra, a Chilean poet, once said, “Poetry can only be life in words-and life is
in the commonplace.” Likewise, Mitra’s poetry seems to be a spontaneous
response to human circumstances rather than the product of a specific literary
tradition. The humane voice of the poet marks ‘Lockdown Again’ and ‘Amphan’.
The chiastic tone is unmistakable when she says, “news of death and hunger/ and
hunger and death” and she continues: “…and floating corpses in Ganga/ shatter a
tender generation.” (59) Same is echoed in ‘Amphan’:
When the branches of the
uprooted trees were cut
after the storm to
restore electric supply
the cries, the
despairing cries
that we heard were ours…
(60)
Mitra’s Some Words Never Sleep catalogues a
plethora of thematic variations. Throughout the volume, she maintains and
renews her poetic vision. Her delineation of human existence in close proximity
with nature and natural objects presented in some of the poems such as,
‘Earth’, ‘The Trees are Buddhas’, ‘Darjeeling’, ‘Teesta II’, ‘Marigolds’, ‘When
it Rains’, ‘This Rain’, ‘Not You alone’, ‘Monsoon’, ‘Tonight’, and so on
readily catches the attention of readers. The concluding line of ‘The Trees are
Buddhas’, “We all are undeciphered rings in the end” (4), or “My river flows
lonely” from ‘Teesta II’ evokes a sense of deep speculation. Likewise, poems
dealing with women question or expressing the vibe of suppressed agony show the
void and hollowness that the contemporary society and/or culture holds. ‘Lag’
probes into the human psychological turbulence through sharply focussed lens of
the poetic vision: “Sometimes I lag behind to savor these fine moments/to know
that I exist. Always alone.” (6) References to the works of John Keats and Vincent
van Gogh bring literature and art closer to our own human cognitive world in
which we are “...trapped/in between two worlds/in a glass square of obvious
memories...” (7) In ‘Inflammable’, the poet cites the names of Sylvia Plath,
Mallika Sengupta and Mary Wollstonecraft inducing the vigour and inner strength
of a figure who “...displays her burn/like a tattoo, bleeding every day/not
only once a month” (13) The poem, in fact, rings with the contempt of the poet
for the prevailing practices in the society upon women, ‘rape’ being one of
them. The poem touches its highest artistic moment when in the concluding
stanza, Mitra alludes to ‘Gynocriticism’: “had I room of my own...maybe I
could/have my own lexicon.” (14) Mitra’s sharp censure on domestic violence, treatment
of women as subjugated beings, marginalised position and predicament of women
in a phallocentric domain and so on is evident in poems such as, ‘Anger’, ‘All
this happened a while ago’, ‘The Wail’ and so on. Nevertheless, the poet never
fails to advocate the liberation of the subjugated soul and its subsequent
celebration. Few instances in this case deserve to be cited as passing
references: “Now she and her oblique shadow/ are free to oscillate on the
surface of her swing-/dreams.” (25); and “I did none of the things you thought
I did...but now that father is dead/your footsteps unsure and lean/let me
in.” (29)
The strength and uniqueness of Mitra’s poetry lies in its ability
to dissolve paradoxes, its ways of channelizing imagination into being and of
course, connecting words with its signifier and signified. Her Some
Words Never Sleep is a poetic sojourn where nothing is preconceived
and hence, the poet never sounds didactic. Her poetic style is innovative,
prosaic and therefore, objective in which a reader immediately becomes a
participant into this poetic exploration. The collection also presents the
poet’s playing with words, punning and juxtaposing different languages which
testify Mitra’s own words in ‘Our Languages’ : “...as Indians we are
all polyglots...” (9) In ‘Earth’, the poet repeats “I slowly turn into the
earth” thrice but never that appears to us monotonous or tedious. She uses the
‘Buddha’ image, as in ‘The Trees are Buddhas’ or ‘Tea’, without making it
ossified or too much opulent. Her poetic assertion never gets mystified even
though she uses phrases ‘rain pain’ because behind the poetic expression and
interpretation there is simplicity and objectivity. One can experience Indian
decorum or Indianness in the poem ‘Our Languages’ whose poetic undertone always
remains profound: “Loneliness is a language...” (11) While ‘Teesta I’ presents
the serenity of its surroundings, ‘Teesta II’ shows the poet’s attachment and
association with the river: “Teesta is the life of my land. Like my veins it
carries the pulsation...” (19) The poet critiques and presents the reality
surrounding her without any prejudice. The traditional rituals associated with
worship and its void is categorically mapped by the poet in ‘When the blessing
is done’: “ The puja was done meticulously, they say” (22) Moreover, there are
few poems in this volume which show the poet’s longing for the past and
nostalgia such as ‘Bouquet of Hyacinths’, ‘Sorrows’, ‘I met an old poet’, ‘The
Flower’, ‘Thoughts’, ‘Charak’ , ‘Places’, ‘Pieces’ and so on. The
anguish of modern men ‘trapped’ in ‘laconic prison’ is presented in ‘Shadow
Prison’. Like T. S. Eliot’s ‘The Hollow Men’, Mitra’s ‘Every journey is a lone
one’ is a scornful commentary on modern men’s failure to communicate and the
waste land they live in: “...they produce/ Pinter’s Landscape” (61)
On the other hand, some of Mitra’s poems give us an exquisite palate on
romance, tenderness and love. For instance, ‘Love’ is a perfect example of
brilliant poetic craftsmanship which redefines the very
notion called ‘love’ which, says the poet, “...sometimes
grows too heavy/ like the idea of God/ to carry literally.” (30) The image of
‘moon’ in ‘Not You Alone’ and ‘Tonight’ brings the essence of romance and
‘Essences’, ‘The Birds’ and ‘Monsoon’ bear the poetic tone which is in quest
for beauty and its aesthetics.
As evident in the current volume, a note of compassion, warmth and
tenderness always pervades Mitra’s poetry when some familiar places and natural
scenario of North Bengal, Bengali cuisine and types of traditional Bengali
culture and rituals are evoked. The coexistence of names such as,
Darjeeling, chor bato, Oxford Bookstore, Tao Lhamo Lake, Rangpo, Kalimpong, Jalpaiguri, Mekhliganj, alpine vegetation, sal leaves, bael leaves, khichri, ghee,
Goddess Kali, chutney, dumur, nagkeshar, Thammi,
Tindharia Hills, Tindharia slopes, Sukna forest, charak tree, shiuli,
palash and akondo flowers, baul, ektara, Madal, Kangira jhum, Ucopakhi, Dauk, jarul tree, sal tree,
and so on and Ola screen, Westside, pantaloons, Global Desi, and Madame makes
Mitra’s poetics globally local and vice versa. In fact, her poems deal with
possibilities in which consideration domesticity, interiority, love, nature,
language, freedom, observation and articulation of human experiences and
psychology turn into the fibres and fabrics of her poetic sensibility. While
many of her poems ceaselessly raise the issues of women’s emancipation and
respond to the tragic turns of patriarchal culture, Mitra never stops
critiquing the deeper existential questions related to liberation, human angst,
instincts, beings and so on. K. Satchidanandan, an eminent Indian poet, once
said, “I can be well spiritual without being religious...a poet does not need any
religion other than poetry itself.” This can equally be applicable for Zinia
Mitra whose poetic panache structures and presents the poems in the present
volume in such a manner reading which one feels the presence of a poetic bent
which is real, intellectual, laconic and aesthetic.
Some Words Never Sleep is indeed a
treat for poetry lovers for its themes, techniques, emotions, languages and
above all, words. The readers of this volume will appreciate the poetic voice
for her uniqueness, tenderness yet robust poetics.