Book Reviews

Sundown Poetry

Sundown Poetry and Other Poems by Pronab K. Majumdar,
Kolkata: Bridge in Making Pub. 1st impression, March-2012, Price-200/- 
 
Philosophy is blood of poetry and without philosophy poetry is lame. But I have tried not to infuse too much of blood which make poetry otherwise sick,” is remarked by Pronab K. Majumdar, the chief editor of Bridge-in making, and veteran poet of IWE. For the first time, it is brought to light by the poet that if the blood of philosophy is sucked up,  the poetry will be lame. Is philosophy really blood of poetry or the leg? Because the absence of leg makes one lame and not the “blood”. Secondly, the first ten collections of P. K. Majumdar were dealing with a major philosophical term “Time”. Does this not sound that poet is philosopher first than anyone else?

The poet himself asserts, “I have looked at ‘Time’ metaphorically personified in different settings, perspectives and angles considering everything in universe, animate or inanimate, is under impact of ‘Time’ and “Time bound’. But the poet is too reluctant to admit that philosophy is the very “fire” and “water’ of poetic existence. The basic philosophy of Majumdar is  “Love”, love to one and all living and non-living objects. His poems search and find the ‘father’ and ‘slayer’ of ‘existence’ who is none but ‘man’. The first chapter of the present collection titled “Slayer of Ozone Layer”: answers the question regarding the slayer of civilization.

It is none but man
And his post-modern civilization.
And his tools of self-destruction
In his race for world occupation. (13)
The book divided into three chapters carries his best poems in the last chapter. Here, the poet seems purely philosophical and genuinely expressive. When one reads poems like ‘Truths and Problems’:
Truths lie modest in humility,
We overlook or ignore them so often
Again problems cry in their own language
Which we neither understand nor probe
Rather we trample them to silence
Not knowing silence is not necessarily death. (95)
Or reader comes across such lines:  
Words only cannot create a poem
Among the birds, there is silence.
(silence. As the connect, 96)
~*~

All the doors one must not open
All the rooms one must not enter
All the words one must not say
All the things one must not paint. (Escape, 10)

~*~
 
Not knowing the source
Life journey in its windy course
For the destination. (Life, 111)
 
Like all earlier collection of P. K. Majumdar, the present one is entertaining and enjoyable. The veteran poet deserves attention of acclaimed critics as well as support from the society and Government because he has no selfish motive of attaining ‘name’ or ‘fame’. His poetry is the only testimony for us that poets live and write not for filling their belly. May God bless our poet!

30-May-2012

More by :  Dr. Shaleen Singh


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