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Terms of Seeing
The first poem, Terms of Seeing, gives us a peep into the poet’s masterly skill in handling the images and seeing the world from different perspectives. The first three paragraphs take us back to the poet’s school days. Then a serious note is ushered in with the turtles moving with ‘monastic grace’. A shaft of sudden light "falls at an angle on their shaven heads, tilting the sun into the sea. Further in the dark cornea of the well/the white turtles moved like exposed optic nerves". In Blank Page, the river is used as a spectacular visual image. "The moon dredges the river-bed/A giant tuskers shadow/emerges from the wreckage of the river/Silence and water." Stray Cats is another beautiful poem. Initially, stray cats are described as dissidents who have lost faith in furnished interiors. It is followed by an entirely different perspective (a bit serious). "When you have nine lives to stretch`85" move on to the "mandatory moment/between the flash of lightning/and the appearance of the ghost." Next we come across the finely crafted lines, "The light is darkish blue and you see/yourself in the iris of the burning eye/The horror is in the seeing". Ramakrishnan has the knack of turning mundane things to a higher level. The poem Oratory is worth quoting. "A rural water scene`85/in lavish rainbows" is described "Like a grand sermon on matters/of life and death it went on and on". Here the poet is not able to understand what the water is saying or doing. The child’s words, "Water is having a bath," captures the spontaneity of huge fountain of water in an expressive phrase displaying poet’s another perspective of looking at things. In Mending Shoes, the cobbler "restores a sense of shape/to the ruins of my journey from the plains`85." The poet has handled socio-political problems through understatements, casual observations and graphic images. Politics gets a tinge of moral concern through the deliberate choice of words and tone. His attacks are oblique. For example, in the poem Minotaurs, he attacks censorship in a subtle manner. First the minotaurs walk out of the paintings and go in the street. He further argues that they should be kept under the lock and key because "we have mounted a vigil on all paintings`85. The ban on the paintbrush and the canvas will continue". The poem Between Hymns and Hatred speaks about the root cause of communal riots. Throughout the poem, the tone has been mild and soft that wins over the reader. There is a rich feast of themes in this volume. Tremors presents a very realistic and true to nature picture of life after tremors. Ramakrishnan is a versatile poet who seems to understand the human mind in different situations. Alzheimer’s Day is one such example. It highlights the pain and anguish of a man who could not find words for common things like a bedsheet or a newspaper. The poet’s mastery in using paradoxical situations is brought out in a line, "all his life, he had taught children language". Ramakrishnan is a superb master of satire that despite being gentle strikes well. Double Lives is a satire on the double lives the human beings lead like animals. In A Speech Heard at a Feminist Seminar in Payyannur, the poet has a dig at the so-called feminists. Two wives have already deserted the renowned theatre personality. Boldly does he claim he "sleeps with the main actress" and for each new play he "insists on a new actress". Equally worth mentioning in this regard is the poem The Cuckold on the Tree, "If on mere suspicion men took to treetops there would soon be/more men living on the trees than on the ground". The reader comes across abundance of intensity of feelings that makes the collection lovable. It has a rich galaxy of images. It won’t be out of place to quote Keki N. Daruwalla in his forward to the collection, "Because of its striking images, its unique perspectives and the unusual way he goes about transacting his poetic business, this volume of Ramakrishnan should leave a lasting impression on the reader’s mind." |
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