YEARNINGS: A REVIEW

Yearnings- Poetess: Ms Abha Iyengar, Pages: 112
Publisher: Serene Woods,
D-72, Nivedita Kunj, Delhi -110092
Printing: Thomson Press India Ltd., Cover Design: Hami (www.facebook.com/getyourhami)
Her website: www.abhaiyengar.com, Her blog: http://abhaencounter.blogspsot.com/


Internationally renowned poet Abha Iyengar has brought out perhaps her first collection of poems ‘Yearnings’. The most striking feature of her poems is their freshness and simplicity. These are poems of love and romance in which emotions dominate. They bear a stamp of authenticity in that they give expression to felt experience. The mind and heart of the poet shines through these poems. These poems are hers and hers alone. One of the qualities of good poetry is that it is not a part of the heaps; it stands out for its individuality rather than for imitation of a model big or small. Many a poet who writes in English has been undone aping T.S. Eliot and his ilk Abha escapes that snare and writes what springs from the heart and goes straight to the heart. A few examples speak for themselves.

Time
It is morning
The dew hangs on my lips

This is not one dimensional poetry. Pain and anguish is another aspect of their themes.

Social Misdemeanours

From the goody-goody girl image
The serpent sometimes crawls out,
To take a snipe at civilization
And then retreats,
Shamefaced
And contride
At the heinous act committed,
Hiding itself
From accusing eyes.
So with a quick smoothening of skirts,
The smile fixes on once more,
A momentary lapse, ignore it now
We shall continue as before.


Strange Lands

In Berlin I cried,
My body racked with pain,
I nearly died.
In Boston I cried
My sister in law had cancer,
She died.
In Paris I cried,
Of a heart wounded and despaired,
My soul died.
I have cried in strange lands
And strangers have held my hands.

This collection is quite likely to make its mark in the world of poetry.
- Prof. Kuldip Salil (Ex- Reader, Hans Raj College, DU)
1770, Outram Lines, Kingsway Camp, Delhi-9