Teesta Review: A Journal of Poetry, Volume 2, Number 1. May 2019. ISSN: 2581-7094
Melodic Mélange by Annapurna Sharma
Authors
press, New Delhi-110016 (India) (2018), ISBN 978-93-87651-71-5, Pp.147, Price
Rs.295/-
---- Dr.
Radhamani Sarma
The
book under review Melodic Mélange, comprising 79 poems, touches upon various
topics - extending from Reflections to Rendezvous, Mothers to Mirage, Morning
drizzles to Ripples, Scaffolds and Eaves to Shooting star. She terms this book
almost with a subtitle (Tales in Verse) allowing readers to look into myriad
ways of expanding the pivotal point aimed at, in these one hundred and forty-seven
pages of significant purport. Almost all the poems (excepting a small number)
begin the flow in the first person, the persona “I” taking an upper hand, such as
donning multi roles of diligent patient
women, persona creating empathy, or “blissful inspiration” (‘Oleander, p.112)
of a flower or longing for lost days, which she can never retrieve, despite her
efforts.
I cannot discern,
Where I lost? (‘Lost
Years,’ p.90)
It
is not merely through the inner voice of characters the speaker envisages/ experiences/
the role she desires to don, but also dovetailing the descriptive aura from
meticulous day to day observations she reaches the audience.
While
retrospecting “who am I”, after imagining many roles, such as “doting daughter”,
(p.42.) pranking sister, or pillaring…wife, she aspires with affirmative commitment
of tone, to be the Mother.
The resonant roaring of the mighty lioness
Guarding offsprings within a thorned fence
An innate nurse that need no training
Intuitive mentoring like copious Guru
The perennial influx of nutriment
I am the fountain head—the Mother! (‘Who
am I?’, p.42.)
Throughout,
her adjectival offspring interplay and free play. Like any other devout person
seeking solace and peace in Meditation, she concentrates, in Silence. In
between what she sees, undergoes, experiences, a plethora of chaos, caught in
the mundane, in the mouth of deep-sea devils, she focuses in poetic terms. She
is solemn, she is one with The Ultimate!
In meditation, I
……
Roamed the solitude psychic lanes,
……
Focused on the light in me
Transcended into a new world
Deluged in an aura of memorization
Sublimed into serenity
Bestowed by HIS Grace, I
Fused with HIM. (‘In
meditation’, p.44.)
She
sails in the world of exploration of self and seeking a path, keen eye for Introspection
and retrospection; while not much of philosophy stands in her way, I mean
karmic philosophy of Birth, Rebirth and Redemption only minimal core. Yet, she
firmly affirms she has taken a solitary road, a long drive to the unknown, it
is hazardous journey, wherein her vigilant eyes don’t miss a dying sparrow, or abandoned
sheep; a gentle caring touch for the afflicted is the call for immediacy.
It’s a long drive!
A peregrine cow
Seeking green pastures to chow.
A wealthy farmer hummed an elegy of thorn,
wild streams danced all night to the dirge of corn. (‘The solitary Road’, P.69.)
Ultimately
a realization dawns upon her, that she journeys in search of a light, “the light
that only our shadow can see”(p.70.)
What
human beings, which writers will not like birds and aviary, what thrilling inspirations
drive them - beyond expression! Her images are drawn from, drizzles,
birds
and ants, open skies and rivers. Mostly, she converts these images dexterously
to have resonance with her descriptive aura and desired purport.
‘To
Be or Not To Be’ is another beautiful write in which the persona transforms the
following image thus:
To be or not to be….
Like the clear open skies converging,
Bird, beast and man alike
Under a single roof of brotherhood merging
They label me a brag drunken and spike
Pampering all with altruism! (‘
To be or not to be’ p,56.)
Nature’s
objects like a Good Gathering single the poet out into a vanishing dream. She revels in the silence of the woods.
At the same time, she is conscious of a World/space/ where selfishness is
rampant, each one goes about his /her business/ (“No one asks if I am hungry”
p. 106.)
At the end of the day-
I trot on the pebbled roads,
the pebbles pricking
through the thin souls…
….. I have
half
a dozen bullies
living in the crypt
to be fed with my blood! (‘At The End of The Day’, p,107.)
Finally,
Ananapurna Sharma , the Editor of
Your Space/ Muse India firmly affirms that love for humanity,
universal love is the only form of redemption, In “Mother’s plea” mother’s anguish
for her son in the war field, longing to see him, appeals in the form of request with a dictum of message for humanity with a
warring instinct.
The guns and missiles
Are weapons of cowards
Who unlearn lessons of love,
In dungeons of hate. (‘Mother’s plea’, p.18.)
Melodic
Melange is ever vibrant in our memory. Annapurna Sharma, Editor of Your
Space/ Muse India has
a wide appeal.