Scholarly Review of My Book of Spiritual Poems, Waltz to the Future, by the prolific poet, Dr. J. S. Anand
Sometimes one feels age has no connection with creation. If young can talk about immortal topics of life, the aged and experienced too can fumble into romantic topics at times. Poetry has no fixed boundaries, and is like a kite in the sky, which knows no boundaries, but only flight and descent. While reading through this book by Chitra, I have felt compelled to put on record that the poet, though she belongs to the gennext evinces enough grasp over things immortal and sublime. Her avowed aim is to instruct the upcoming generations, yet she rises above these self-inflicted limits, and addresses the basic questions of joy and pain, and life and death.
In fact, poetry too is action, in passive resistance. Our feelings are actions unperformed. And our passions are our plans yet to be realized. If it is not pen, it is words, and its action in different cases, depending upon the personality traits of a person. We are all action, saying something, and even in our silences, this process of ‘saying’ goes on. The language of ‘expression’ starts with our body, moves through our gestures, and then, it turns into words which are recordable as text. Every thing that exists, has a language, in which it converses with its fellows. We too assign language and meaning to the flowers, and the mountains, and even rivers, which are otherwise without a language in our conceived forms.
Chitra surprises with the variety of her subjects, as well as the intensity of feeling. I have found in her the gift of charging words with deep emotions, and metaphorising her poetry. Metaphor is the most basic equipment for poetry, and a mind which can easily compare its experience says a lot without saying anything. She uses the metaphor of the circus and the showman to impress man with the idea of his possible mastery of himself as well as the waiting universe:
Remember in the circus of life,
You are the master showman
principal performer
Hang in there! Hang in there!
Don’t let any feat scare!
[Hang in There, 58]
Chitra talks of the Tree of Morals, on whose branches, fruits of values germinate. This concern for values takes her poetry out into the realms of commitment to society, a value based society. This has always been the constant passion with poets, and Chitra shares the immortal juice. Such moral vistas open up to an awakened soul, of which she talks in her poem ‘Portals of Reality’:
The swans of my hopes that float /on the crested wavelets of the mind /bring to surface the /hologram of kaleidoscopic visions, /Opening up the realm of awakening
/where these swans fathom the depths of existence /to glorify my hope stashed dreams /into portals of reality /by sipping the essence of inspiration and grace. [Portals of Reality, p.40]
The power with which she carries over the image through the whole poem, and talks in metaphors sows the seeds of greatness and is a knock at the doors of immortality.
I see in Chitra a future building up for world poetry. My wishes for the young poet.
DR J.S. ANAND
AMBASSADOR, WORLD UNION OF POETS,
WINNER OF CROSS FOR PEACE AND CROSS FOR LITERATURE