It's always a pleasure to review the work of a writer who's from the same city as I am: Chennai. It brings about a certain sense of solidarity especially when it's a fellow poet who is increasingly being recognised for her versatility.
K. Srilata's latest book of poems Arriving Shortly , like most poetry collections, takes off from the poet's multifarious experiences across time and space. And experience has no theme.
Varied tones
Divided into seven prolific sections, the book published by Writers Workshop takes us through these experiences through varied tones and images; sometimes predictable, at times gently surprising and now and then shocking.
The predictable tone and image in this book is that of explicit sentiment and so, I like Srilata's poems best when they are startlingly ironic, terse, or even playful. And every section has its share of such lines. ‘Many poems nestle inside houses' a poem in the eponymous first section is appealing for the straightforward observation. For the fact is that poems are omnipresent. The closing lines are striking: “ Sometimes the poem sitting in that crumbling old house/urges me to knock/at the door/and touch her face./Each day every day/I pass the house./I just pass by .”
‘For Jeanne Mukuninwa' in the first section is perhaps more blatant in the way the poet refers to war crimes. Though at times dramatic and sentimental, the poem does take a twist towards the end.
The poem begins with the question, “ Just what can you bake into a poem? ” Sky-blue skies, cotton clouds, vanilla milk shake moons and red-breasted robbins could be poured into “ moulds of lyrics, sonnets and free verse ”. Then, she asks: “ But what of Jeanne Mukuninwa/who slid off sky blue skies and clouds of cotton and milk shake moons when she was raped over and over/by soldiers till inside her fistulas erupted… ”
The arresting denouement comes in the rhetoric: “ There must be a way, surely,/of baking fistulas into a poem? ”
The second section also titled “Arriving Shortly” takes readers through different geographic locations. I particularly liked “Terra Nullius” in which the poet describes the experience of flying over Alice Springs, especially when she talks of an entire people, who are “ educated white, and stirred like sugar into milk. ”
Overriding theme
Family and personal reminiscences are the overriding theme of the third section appropriately called “Bionote”. The first poem here touched a chord with me more for the references to the city of Chennai and everything that makes this city so dear to Chennaiites!
The poet proclaims that she is middle class and very Madras, born and raised in West Mambalam (a bustling residential locality in Chennai): “ the other side of the railway tracks where fabled mosquitoes turn people into elephants .”
The same sense of humour comes through the fourth section devoted to light verse. There is even a dosa poem to boot. However, the section I like the most is the last one, “The Wingspan Of Words”, where 11 poems come together to reflect on poetry. Look at “What Befell That Fourth Poem”: “ A dead rat/Got to the fourth/ Before I could/his blood pooling/around/black fur/and white page. ”
“There are Many Ways to Stop a Poem” is equally effective. “ The most popular method is to explain it, ” goes the poem. So taking my cue, I refrain from further explanations and encourage you to discover Arriving Shortly on your own. Read it for the sheer versatility of a prolific poet.
Arriving Shortly; K. Srilata, Writers Workshop, Rs 200
