The other day, a friend and I were having a conversation on poetry and I asked her to give me feedback on “Death & Darker Realms”, my debut book.
“I can’t give you feedback. Poetry cannot be criticized,” she said solemnly.
“Don’t understand why people have so much problem with Rupi Kaur. Don’t like her poetry, don’t read her poetry,” she added.
Thing is, I couldn’t disagree with her. I have NEVER written a poetry review. Because they cannot be reviewed. Each reader has something different to infer from a poem. And the effect of poetry is a completely unique experience. If you don’t like it, maybe you just don’t get it. Or it’s simply not for you, but out there, it might touch someone else.
This is one of the reasons why I refused to name any of the poems in ‘Death & Darker Realms’. They are simply numbered #1, #2, #3 and so on. Because as soon as you name a poem, the title sort of defines it. You rob the reader from making their own inferences.
‘The stars shone down & then finally fell
Fall they did to a morose knell…”
They are just the first two lines of poem number six in the book. It’s one of the shorter and older ones; written in my late teens. I still remember showing it to my grandfather one late evening.
“What does it mean?” he asked after reading all of it.
I explained how the poem was inspired from folk-tales that believe we turn into starts after our deaths. But some of us are born again, doomed to live an unsatisfied life on earth. Again.
If you are interested in discovering new poetry, please check out ‘Death & Darker Realms’. The ebook is available on Amazon/ Amazon kindle.
Following are the links – (the paperback is available on Amazon.com)
Please check your country’s Amazon if I haven’t listed it or just on your kindle/kindle app.
Is that your illustration? ‘Somebody that I used to know’?
Haha, yeah, drew it while listening to the song.
It’s brilliant. That’s an amazing talent you’ve got there.
Thank You! A lot of people told me that I should have illustrated my poetry book, but then that would have taken me ages to finish 😀