KOCHI: Two debut verse collections - ‘In Solitude’ by Rahul Sharma and ‘Songs of a Solitary Tree’ by Arun M Sivakrishna - seek attention for their ingenuity. The writers bring fresh and out-of-the-box perspectives and a wealth of non-conformist imagery. Rahul Sharma is a software engineer by qualification who, as the forward says, is passionate about literature. To Arun Sivakrishna, a management professional, poetry is one among his varied interests like motor sports, cricket, photography and travel. Despite the affectation of stilted rhyme schemes, the poems offer a mirror to contemporary life.
The topics dealt with in Rahul Sharma’s collection vary from life and love to philosophy and truth. Quite often, we see glimpses of a mind that is awed by the emotions attached to love and loss.
Elsewhere, the young poet is debating with himself, trying to make sense of the emotions that wash over him. His anxiety about the passage of time, to which, he juxtaposes his own life and its sickening inertia, is evident in poems like ‘Curse’ and ‘Being Captivated’.
I still remain captivated/within the cage of freedom…, he says in ‘Being Captivated’.
Loss and death find repeated mention in his poems, though not as cul de sac, but sources of redemption and revival. ‘For No Reason (A Prefix to Death)’ dwells on the absurdity of ‘undefined search’ for ‘unknown destinations’. On the other hand, ‘Moribund Dreams’ is a valiant assertion of his faith in dreams - incubated and hibernating but possessing the enormous strength to break free ‘like the phoenix’.
Nevertheless, apathy is not the tone of Rahul Sharma’s poems. They convey the agility of a young and contemplative mind.
Give me a way out/To break out and sprout….
And want to stand, Walk, and run and fly…., announces the poet in ‘I am awake’.
Arun M Sivakrishna’s verses are better described as prose poems. The writer offers his take on almost everything that composes the everyday life of an urbanite. Inevitably, the voice of the writer drops to the depths of dejection but never fails to get back on the highway of mundane humdrum. He finds reasons to cheer for the specter of life as in ‘An Eventful Day, Sometime Back’ and ‘Oh Those Sweet Little Monsters’.
The author is preoccupied with the dynamics of relationships - as they are acted out in conventional settings and their ephemeral nature in a changing world. A commentary on the lived experiences of a city-dweller, the poetry collection chronicles his journey through the maze of traffic snarls, ego clashes, parenthood, marriage, caring for aged parents, and snatches of simple pleasures as in ‘A layman listening to Shafqat Amanat Ali’. ‘In Solitude’ is published by Roots and Wings and ‘Songs of a Solitary Tree’ is brought out by Partridge India.