Jun 05, 2012 12:40 PM
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The GOLD of literature, POETRY is meant for “the Lunatic, the Lover and the Poet”. Every poet is viewed with suspicion, distrust and strangeness. People are wary and concessive of writers in general and poets in particular. So now you know the constraints of the scenario and hardness of the terrain that NJ trod upon in producing this outstanding book of poems. I know him and can empathise with him for he is my son!
AFTERMATH is a collection of 102 poems, of which I particularly liked about 30. His poetic concentration is intense and some of the lines are powerful and memorable. Paul Sebastian has already highlighted some of the lines. Kindly read his review to relish a few of the memorable lines from NJ. He has made my task slightly easier!
They say that every young man at some time or other is a bit in love! Some more than others. Some love daringly and pursue the object of their adoration to the ends of the earth like Poet Robert Browning and relish the fruits of their efforts and write beautiful psychological poems like he did. Some others love like Alfred J. Prufrock (T. S. Eliot’s THE LOVE SONG OF ALFRED J. PRUFROCK) and dare not “disturb the universe” with their overwhelming question! Some like John Donne dares to abuse the Sun and upbraid it by calling it “busy unruly Sun” for disturbing him and his lady love in bed by peeping through the curtains. In another poem he tells his lady love, “For God’s sake hold your tongue and let me love”. W.B. Yeats throughout his life could not forget Maud Gonne, his lady love who repudiated him and married Major John McBride. However unrequited love was responsible for some of his great poems. He finally got married in his fifties to a woman who brought much stability to his life enabling him to write still greater poems!
Quite often uninitiated readers make the cardinal mistake of concluding that every poem of a writer is autobiographical! A poet worth his salt writes for humanity; he writes for all mankind. I would like to believe that NJ has similarly written for all young persons who are/were in love in different stages, albeit; though some elements of autobiography cannot be completely ruled out. T.S. Eliot in one his essays stated that “Poetry is not expression of one’s personality, but extinction of it”. He added that only a person who has a personality knows how difficult it is to extinguish it. NJ in my opinion has managed to extinguish his sensitive personality to a large extent to write for all of us who have known what it is to love, suffer, doubt, hope and dare to still love for they do not know what else to do!
NJ is on the threshold of a promising poetic career and I am sure he will assimilate other experiences and exploit them for poetic purposes. All of us evolve after all; and NJ the lover will anon be a husband, father, a family man and so on, and wearing so many hats will examine the poetic possibilities of every experience. He is a poet to watch and I hope busy MSians will have the time and disposition to watch him and participate vicariously in every experience he chooses to present. A poet is for all time; not for a particular era. I have great faith that my son will evolve before our eyes. As Robert Browning said in another context.
