Ugh, I feel so terrible as I begin to write the review of a “poetry” book I just finished reading. I picked the kindle book because the cover looked really nice and it was free for me. Perks of being a Kindle Unlimited member. Anyway, it’s called ‘Enter’ by Anshika Sharma and Mahesh Mali and the “poems” in the book are basically quotes.
Call me old school, but as someone who loves to read & write poetry, I don’t think 15 words make a poem. Heck, that sentence was longer than some of the “poems” in the book. I am not exaggerating and here’s proof. Following is a screenshot of a “poem” from the book.
Now you know why I keep putting the word poem in double quotes every time. Literally half the page was empty after that poem. I was misled by the cover.
Perhaps this is what they call ‘insta poetry’ these days. Just not my cup of tea. I’ve never read Rupi Kaur, but am starkly aware of her popularity. So I am pretty sure that there are a lot of people who perhaps would appreciate the quick four liners in this book. I don’t fall in that category.
If you know some good poetry books, please suggest some. Also, you can find me on Facebook, GoodReads and Instagram
Make that two. I do appreciate poetry in different forms and sometimes a line or two can be a poem by themselves but this, this is not “poetry” by any stretch of imagination.
Unfortunately most poetry books, even the ones rated good on most platforms, have turned out to be a mixed bag for me. If you are okay with reading 5 to come across a good one, I would suggest checking out ‘All You Who Sleep Tonight’ by Vikram Seth and ‘I Was The Wind Last Night’ by Ruskin Bond, if you haven’t already.
If you have any favourites or have mentioned them in any post, do share them too!
I love Vikram Seth’s poetry, he is so good! I rarely read poetry by new writers but would want to change that. Will check out Ruskin Bond, don’t think I’ve read any of his poetry.
Ohh yes, Vikram Seth’s poetry never fails to surprise me. Ruskin Bond’s poems aren’t that as well known as his prose, and for good reason- they aren’t nearly as good as the latter but you would find a few gems in that collection. Rilke’s, poems are great too. If you do enjoy Hindi/Punjabi poetry, Amrita Pritam’s ‘Kaagaz Te Canvas’ is exceptional.
Except for some poetry by Gulzaar, haven’t ready any other Hindi poet. I quite love the poetry of war poets like Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sasoon, haunting stuff!
I just saw this post/review and I think you didn’t read the book description (It’s a spoof) and the note at the end of the book (please read it once). We totally agree with what you said, yes this is what they call ‘insta poetry’ and most often it’s debatable whether those are “poems”.
To save your time here’s what that note at the end of the book says:
We have written this book in just a couple of hours, it’s almost similar to the time we might need for writing an authentic poem. If you had enjoyed the book and are a fan of “micro-poetry”, please don’t forget to appreciate the regular poems which require more work and talent.
If you can appreciate this shit, then you can surely give time to the actual writers who are putting the effort out there. Don’t go for the pages which have more followers, but read the ones which have more content.