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The Rain
Inside A
poet tends to look beyond the mundane. His restless mind seeks
answers to life’s posers, often impelling him to look within and also
beyond the self. Zimbo’s poems are both introspective and ruminative.
For example, in Permanence he dwells upon the nature of
relationships, in Readiness he asks ‘Is there anything/ in this
world/ more horrifying,/ more unusual,/ more pleasing/ than life?’ You
detect angst and anger in Spider in Ink even when he turns
cryptic in When I see these people. However, he is at his best
while talking nostalgia in poems like The Leopard and Memories.
One enjoys reading this volume although, occasionally, Zimbo gets a bit
brooding and didactic.
This anthology of verse is
comparatively syncretic. Khitan deals as much with a woman’s woes as
with nature’s varied aspects. She too, like a good poet, gets
reflective but, unlike Zimbo, is an extrovert. She is inspired as much
by a stone’s cold beauty (Ode to a stone) as by the serene
spring in Nagaland or the mountains of Lahaul-Spiti (The woman and
the willow). Some of her poems evoke strong and haunting images as
in He still waits for the last train. In The difference
she contrasts the selfless nature of flora and fauna with our
motive-driven actions. The poet’s heart beats for her birthplace, her
Naga roots, as illustrated by this stanza in A warrior’s dream
forgotten, ‘And here I come, a Naga daughter/Far into some
midnight fantasy/ Lamenting my soul’s sad dreams/Invoking the divine
by way of hope;/For you my homeland/I have only these lines`85’. You
will find this volume engrossing.
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Whispering Rocks