Reviews, Vol I, Issue IV
City Times and Other Poems
A Must Read Pack
of Poems with Five Blank Pages
Prof.
Vihang A. Naik, an inspiring teacher, a good translator and widely published, anthologized
award winning contemporary English poet, was born in Surat, Gujarat on
September 2, 1969. His collection of poems Poetry
Manifesto (2010) Making A Poem (2004), City Times and Other Poems first published in 1993,
Gujarati collection of poems Jeevangeet
(2001), set the stage for his success. He also translates poetry written in
Gujarati language into English, His poems have appeared in Indian Literature : A Sahitya Akademi Bi-Monthly Journal , Kavya
Bharati , POESIS : A Journal of
Poetry Circle, The Journal of The Poetry
Society (India) , The Journal of
Indian Writing In English , The Journal
of Literature and Aesthetics and many more.
The City Times and Other Poems by Prof.
Vihang A. Naik is a philosophical pack of poems, divided in six segments, i.e, “Love
Song of a Journeyman”, “Mirrored Men”, “The Path of Wisdom”, “Self Portrait”, “At
the Shores” and “City Times”. The uniqueness of the collection is that every
title is nicely woven to its poems. The title of every segment and the poems do
not harm the message of the poet rather both stands still with the poet, like
in, “Love Song of a Journeyman” is a travelogue of fancies and feeling of the
poet, carries seven poems and every poem tells a unique tale of the journey of poet’s
imagination. The poet has exhibited a different poetic style in the very first
poem. A reader can comprehend the intuition of the poet at the tail of the
poem. The first song is all about the poet’s first surreal imagination…Your
upholding downward look/ Dimpled shyness/ warmer breath/ Transparent eyes/
Flickering flames/ Ankle play. The interesting thing about the first poem of
this section is that if a reader reads this poem from tail to head rather from
head to tail, it does not affect the imagination of the poet. The message remains
crystal clear. The expressions of the other six poems hover over the poet’s
inner feelings and unmasked reality of the world. The poem, “The world shrinks
within…”, “How long…”, “Time preaches mortality…”, “You broke petals….”, “The
flower devoid of colour…”, takes a reader to the shores of reality where man
has lost his way to humanity. The poet unpacks the book of absurdity which ends
in nothingness and repeatedly warns his fellow beings not to take the road
which leads to nowhere.
…There
the
road unwinds,
where
you’ll
pick up
the
race
and
melt away
in the
noises
of a
city
whose
streets
lead
you nowhere.
The
second section of this collection is titled; “Mirrored Men” comprises seven poems. Appropriately titled section
throws light on the multi masked man of the modern world. The poet tells that
how a man pretends to be wise and gives speeches and lectures to others to
follow. In poems like, “Chameleon is not that great”, “Man as he is...”, “He is
different behind …”, man
has been portrayed as a true image of folly,
vice, error, deceit and what not. The man of the modern world has lost the
value of truth and has become diabolic in nature. The second section is all
about the changing colours of a man whose outer is different than his inner.
They are actually two persons in a single shell.
He is
different behind
his
words of cream
and
butter, it serves
his
purpose. His language
curves
like dark night
of
desire, takes turns
with
ambiguous intent…
The
third section is titled, “The Path of Wisdom”. It comprises seven short poems. After going
through it, one can say that these are the words of wisdom because the overall
message of the section is appealing it takes a reader into a state of wonder
that how can a poet be so appropriate and exact while writing the words of
wisdom. Every poem of this section really gives us a glimpse to the
philosophical probing of the poet and compels a reader to ponder over his next
move in the game of life.
Listen!
Death knocks
at the
door
of your
heart
or for
a moment, imagine.
You may
open
then to
enter
into
life
really
lived.
The
next section, “Self
Portrait”, consists of a very short poem and five blank pages, a unique
approach of the poet. He gives a free space to a reader to register his
feelings on these five blank pages or the poet himself feels blank because he
begins the section as “I wake up to see my Self”, followed by five blank pages and
ends with a phrase “discovered beyond thought”. After carefully going through
this section, a reader concludes that they are not merely five blank pages,
they are actually five appropriately titled books without the story and the
responsibility of filling these pages has been put on the shoulders of a reader.
The
fifth section, “At the
Shore” contains seven beautiful poems. All the poems in this section deal with
the poet’s sense of alienation and inbetweenness in the busy days of modern
life.
The
last section of this collection “City Times” is a collection of seven realistic
poems. What remains interesting here is how the poet shows broken image of
materialistic city life. The poet, Vihang, beautifully sketches the wicked city
weather and atmosphere which has burnt down humans beings within, “memory
stirs/the mugging parrot/cute companion/who died/by the sun’s/ scorching
fireballs/even he had refused/to learn from men/parting/member’s name..”. The
poem, “A Sympathiser for Underdogs” gives us a detailed description of our
underdevelopment, poverty, naked population and blah blah… “from naked palm/the
lifeline leads/to the skin/unclean/heart line/to half covered body/it strikes
anyone”. The poet portrays a symbolic
character of a beggar who represents the sordid material greed and the
mechanicality that has crept into the
behavior of people living in modern/metropolitan cities. He further qualifies the
central idea of the poem as:
our
cities
have
scores of them
they
catch hold
stick
to you
first
you
look
around
away
then
inwardly
an
introspection
they do
not
leave
you so easily
they
shall shower
blessings
hurriedly…
The
poetic onslaught on city life does not end here it further goes on. The poem,
“City Voice” comes up with more lethal diction:
the
gray haze distorts
noises
of broken rhythm
railway
tracks rattle
the
wheel
strikes
on road
look
for signal lights
in
crowded smoke
an old
man coughs
the
illness
of his
age…
or:
an
inspired child
sketches
of
nuclear war
the
world shivers
a
polluted planet
the
ganga screams
for
help…
The
poet shows how wicked politics and opportunism tarnished the age old tradition
of values, beliefs and customs. Such wickedness did not only harm the purity of
thought but went even further to cause division and disharmony among fellow
human beings. The collection, “City
Times and Other Poems” covers all the universal themes. After
reading this wonderful collection, one feels the divine relief and absolute
satisfaction. The poet has succeeded in presenting a valuable gift to his
readers which answers many difficult questions and reveals the truth about many
mysteries.
Reviewed by Waseem Majazi
Research Scholar, Department of
English & Foreign Language, Central
University of Haryana
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