Melodic Melange by A Annapurna Sharma
Authorspress 2018/ pp 147/ Rs 295/
ISBN : 978-93-87651-71-5

About the Poetess:

Annapurna Sharma is a passionate and prolific writer and an avid reader. The recipient of Savitribai Phule National Women Achiever Award-2018, she has been adjudged as the highly recommended writer in the 4th Bharat Award for Literature. Her poem was selected for The Voice of Poets, International Award by Verbumlandiart, Italy. Her writings have appeared in Women’s Era, Reader’s Digest, several online portals, anthologies, A Quick Read compiled by C.A. Simonson, Taj Mahal Review, Glomag, Muse India, The Hans India, Amaravati Poetic Prism, Chitra Lele’s Oh My Sweetest Love – A Timeless Treasure, WWW Women, Wit & Wisdom – An International Multilingual Poetry Anthology of Women Poets.

Book Review:

“Poetry”, says Coleridge,” represents the best words in the best order.”

Annapurna Sharma’s book ‘Melodic Melange’ comprises of seventy nine well woven and beautifully composed poems depicting the various facets of life…love, laughter, cheer, hope, agony, anguish, dreams. The themes scatter the prismatic hues illuminating the readers, introducing them to known and unknown meadows of life.

‘Melodic Melange’ commences with a humble offering to the Divine and progresses swiftly towards the hidden treasures of the words- soft and soothing, inspiring and motivating, even shaking and shuddering at times. Sheathing underneath the comprehensible coherent ideas are the profound philosophies of life. The book is a depiction of human relationships not only among themselves but also with nature and other beings of the cosmos. From ‘Reflections’ to ‘Incubation’, the journey of the poetess whirls and swivels around several twists and turns giving birth to a perfect harmonious Melange.

Annapurna’s reverence for womanhood finds reflection in ‘A Mother’s Plea’, ‘Under The Palms’, ‘Mothers’. A woman’s journey is a struggle awaiting recognition and endearment, the expanse of her emotions being boundless…

“The Chinars and the Deodars
Tulips and marigolds
The kettle of love in my heart
Wait to sizzle with your return.”   — (A Mother’s Plea, p19)

Annapurna has successfully struck the right chords though her poetry based upon the firm foundations laid down upon her varied and profuse experiences of life.  A lover of nature and an exponent of natural beauty, she has elegantly carved out ‘A Misty Dusk’, ‘Morning Drizzles’, ‘Brownies’, ‘Silence of the Woods’.

“The lone traveler
on foreign shores
yearns to be home
for the festival.”  — (A Misty Dusk, p20)

Annapurna pours out her heart as she indites the worrisome and dismaying consequences of human activities, the thoughtless and inconsiderate treatment of earth and the earthlings.

“Migrating to the cemented cities
Nowhere to be seen were trees or birdies
Failed to spot the crimsoned iris Queen
But couldn’t forget its harmonious sheen!” — (When I Saw Her, p122)

‘Vaayu 24x7’, ‘Is It An Honour’, ‘What Price Will You Pay’ manifest as the warning to the humankind raising the alarm bells for the human race to awaken themselves, shedding off greed and ego, considering the wellbeing of nature and its inhabitants.

“No big filter could sieve, I left them impure, deoxidized,
emission loaded air
Wake up! Do something now, to save Vaayu for them,
Our descendants!”  — (Vaayu-24x7, p34)

There is a Divine purpose behind everything, whose essence itself is love and wisdom.

“Deluged in an aura of mesmerization
Sublimed into eternity
Bestowed by His grace, I
Fused with Him!”  — (In Meditation, p44)

Tagore’s views find a generous expression in Annapurna’s poetry: “Love is the only reality and it is not a mere sentiment. It is the ultimate truth that lies at the heart of creation.”

‘Elements of Love’, ‘Butterfly In The Room’, ‘The Wailing Rain’, ‘Subtle Gossamer’ and an array of such verses gracefully present the emotions of love, benevolence, faith in cordiality of relationships.

“To take life in sprite
To eschew fringes and frills
Douse the inferno of soul annihilation
A single rule-To live and let live!!!”  — (Butterfly In The Room, p114)

The poetess voices strongly against the degradation of human values in the contemporary society. ‘Black Ants’ and ‘A Rose and A Rock’ take a tough stand exhibiting the exasperation and resentment.

“Leaving the sugar candy
In despair and dry ice
Waiting for justice’
Only to find none.”  — (Black Ants, p67)

Dying Embers’, ‘Mannequin’, ‘Mellifluous Endurance’ are miraculously interwoven with the courage, hope and faith of establishing a society, free from all vice and malice.

“Rise ‘O’ woman, Rise!
………
No man whatsoever can
Douse the flame of womanhood
The flame of life,
Within you!”  — (Dying Embers, p101)

As a nightingale, the poetess sings to cheer and enlighten the darkened alleys of humankind. Her poetry touches the strings of the readers’ hearts.  ‘The Story Of My Life’, ‘Painter Potter Poet’, ‘I Wish- Aviary’ and ‘I Wish I Were’ display Annapurna’s poetical journey and the marvelously tread path that has led her to becoming the prodigy of poesy. Whether it is the rhythmical exhibit of emotions in ‘When I Saw Her’, ‘She left, He left’, ‘Empty and Forlorn’ or the free lucid verses, Annapurna has mastered the skill with flair and finesse.

“The harsh winter gale
Trees nude and pale
No birds, no nests, no chirping, no shrieking
No flowers, no fruits, no leaves squeaking.”  — (Empty and Forlorn, p89)

In ‘Melodic Melange’, the euphonious and mellifluent medley of verses glide smoothly as the ocean waves, drizzled with muzzling showers of emotions, sprinkled with the passionate love for nature, at times spurted with angst and anguish against the prevalent iniquity.

“A couple of letters joined hands,
Whipped up to become a word.
Numerous words trotted down the lanes in my mind
Shaped into a sentence and lay in my lap.”  — (The Story of My Heart, p130)

Annapurna’s book reverberates the harmonious portrayal of life in its entirety presenting an insight into her compassionate, loving, benevolent heart as she reminisces and puts forth….

“The story of my heart,
For everyone to read and ruminate.”