A DOOR SOMEWHERE?
POEMS BY JAYDEEP SARANGI
CYBERWIT.NET, 2014,ISBN 978-81-8253-490-2
Reviewed
by
Edyta
WIĘCŁAWSKA
University of Rzeszów,Poland
The volume of poems under review is a collection of
thoughts that present a new look at the aspects of life that have always been
reflected upon. Although the poet puts himself in a modest position choosing
for his motto the words by A.D. Hope emphasising – by analogy to the power of
nature – the helplessness of a man to describe the reality, the poems prove to
be a very thought-provoking and pleasant material for highly intellectual
readers.
The topics touched
upon are said – by the poet himself – to have been triggered by past memories
and experiences. The theme of the past recurs in a number of poems. For
example, in the poem Small Things in Life
the poet uses phrases like ‘old castles live with memories’ and ‘ancient ghosts
are chanting’. In the same poem we read that the past comes to us through the
open door or windows. There is also a reference to ‘unlocking the past’.
The motive of a door seems to be recurring throughout
the volume. The image of door is a way to present life as a continuum. We wait
in front of the door, cross the threshold and face new challenges. The poet
says ‘I do not know his tomorrow behind the door’ in Mysteries of the Door. In the same poem the readers get the image
of the door that is open or locked. Entering new sphere of possibilities is
perceived as embarking on a journey. We read about people who wait and then
leave the station (Small Things in Life).
The reflections seem to be even more authentic for those
who can trace some autobiographical elements in the poems by Jaydeep Sarangi. In
My Old Chariot roads […] carry me and
my daughter’. Likewise, in Small Things
in Life the author provides us with the picture of sitting and talking with
his daughter (‘I sat with my daughter who kept talking’). Finally, A Mirror includes the picture of his
daughter tracing white lines on his head. The authenticity of the poetry is enhanced
by the promise the poet makes in Small
Things in Life: Now I don’t look for a by-pass everywhere. It’s straight
from my heart’.
The poems are to be appreciated for their rhetorics. The
author uses a variety of linguistic devices to convey his reflections. For
example, whispering time in My Old
Chariot, the river that greets the poet in A Door and the day growing
older in Day Breaking stand for cases
of personifications. In general, the metaphorics of the poems under review is
very rich and the images sketched by the poet may be said to be triggered by a
variety of conceptual links. Hence, to illustrate, the overwhelming silence is
referred to as ‘blanket of silence’ in My
Old Chariot. Notably, the rain-based
metaphorics is particularly favoured by the poet. Hence we have ‘rain of
images’ in A Door, ‘rain-lashed
trees’ in A Letter to God, ‘words
don’t rain surprise’ in A Mirror and
‘wet trees looked at me in amazement’ in Each
Time.
There are also instances of taste
metaphor. Here belong, for instance, sweet face mentioned in My Old Chariot, thoughts that are swallowed,
as written in For a Postman, hungry
eyes in Mystery of the Land and honey
dreams referred to in Sleep.
In synthesis it
needs to be emphasised that the poetry by Jaydeep Sarangi has much of a
clam-down effect. It puts the reader in a state of harmony, belief and trust
for the good things to come. Things which are important to all of us are said
to come to us in a natural way, just as the sun comes after a spell of bad weather.
The message communicated in the poems is delivered with unique freshness.
Reading about serious philosophical issues the reader feels relaxed and
positive. This may be said to be the result of the sincerity of thought and the
richness of green and rainy imagery, as delivered by the poet, which – by the
way – brings to us the taste of India.
