Meena Chopra
Poetry Book Review
Available at Amazon
Publisher : Kelsay Books (Oct. 10 2022)
Paperback : 103 pages
ISBN-10 : 1639801812
ISBN-13 : 978-1639801817
I relate to her ekphrastic poetic artistry very closely because I am a visual artist and because of her down-to-earth symbolism that attracts me and fulfils my artistic and creative needs. As a committed, creative person, she seems to be drawing her power from every little thing happening in everyday life. I see intensified emotions. I see a constant craving driven by an unknown desire for something, which perhaps she also is exploring to realise. She is serious-minded and lives in reality. She is deeply embedded in real-time. It seems as if these poetic words are an effective healer of the self.
“Baggage becomes dense, worn out, yet wheels are not ready to squeak and repose. I let the pointed peep toes of yesteryears go switching to block heels instead.
The entire poetic artistry is a journey, a search of the self through the variety of layers of objectivity to reach the subjective element. Though these poems are ekphrastic, I feel the symbols or the central point in these lovely paintings are also evoking her personal experiences through the stream of consciousness. These images take their own shape flight to create their own story. She takes her cue from the symbols of the artwork, and the whole vista of imagination opens. These are not descriptive or illustrative poems in any way. They have their own personality, which gives another dimension to the artwork and makes the viewer see them in a new and imaginative way.
She finds her inspiration and recluse both in the power of symbolism and imagery of all kinds. All of this makes her poems surrealistic, eerie-ish and fanciful as she lives in many worlds in a moment through the cross-cultural diversity of symbolism. All this comes across very vividly. I also like the way she collocates the old and contemporary and juxtaposes the myth of the east with the west.
“That night I pushed my Trojan into Ganesha’s care to be melted and reused as asphalt binding me to modesty.
At times one wonders whether these symbols are a conscious effort or they are just naturally flowing down in her poems. Nevertheless, the overall effect is impressive. In another example, the poem also leaps over time, space, and cross-cultural boundaries. It gives a feel of the artistry of pop style and finds a final recluse in the freedom of nature and its perennial dance.
“I become a pair of new ballet shoes yearning for love and wisdom. Saraswati is nearby. Shiva is not far away. Yin and yang sit on my eyelids. I fly out to the ocean, composed, collected, in a plethora of perceptive, wispy blues, flamingo pinks and satin peach hues”.
“footprint’s ashes still smoldering”
“I search for the yarn and fable in each”.
Effects of Corona wear on her mind. I found these lines very sensitive. These show her very subtle connectivity with nature ‘within and without’ wandering in vivid modern cityscape.
From A New Day
“I see drizzle dripping cars drive by. Cars are circles. Buildings are slender, straight into the ground or nowhere. Indigo grass is growing on thin lengths of reed. Chewing gum mouths move noisily. Tongues are fluorescent. I run helter-skelter, opening all the doors till I see my bed neat and ready. I don’t waste time. Let no haunts visit my dreams either. Next morning is fresh like a newly plucked tangerine. As I sip the juice, the phone rings. “Corona took him.” Residue of the booster in my arm hurts but it’s a new day”.
Here is another one where her imagination flies from Draupadi’s predicament to satisfy her five husbands to the extremity of very contemporary Dali’s Burning Giraffe.
“The glass fell, rolled off into a painting a non-ally was drawing. Inside the canvas nail splinters became flying feathers, searching for their throbs gone too soon. Colored strokes became rivers and canals and veins and arteries. Parts of the brain seemed missing or heralding a distinctive era with assorted drawers opening and slamming shut much to the chagrin of odd mechanical women in Dali’s Burning Giraffe”.
Her teenage rebellion
“I am old enough now to wear a bikini to the chagrin of many. My soul joins the teasing with verses, strokes, brushes, and daydreams”.
This work is also important because while poems are ekphrastic, they give a deeper insight and dimension to the aesthetic sensibility to the viewer/reader of the poems and art together. It also reflects on Anita’s deep roots in Indian culture and, at the same time, her in-depth exposure to many other cultures and shows the influences of modern cross-cultural social sections. This makes her work very rich and modernistic, fresh and unique. I personally believe that such creative works are important for the advancement and growth of any art, artist, or literature in general. She is connected and yet flying. Every poem makes you think, think and think. It compels readers and viewers also to join Anita’s soaring saucer in the boundaries of time.
I congratulate Anita for producing this remarkable work and wish her the best.
