Seething Silences And Screams
D. Vinayachandran
A note on the poems by Aparna Vasudevan. This note is written by the eminent Malayalam poet D. Vinayachandran. Being the proposed publisher of the poet, I take this opportunity to print this relevant study of the budding poet by the well-known poet
Out of unknowing
and sacrifice
We come
bearing our wonders
Our wounds
and our gifts.
Alice Walker
The being and becoming of a poetic soul, its love and bickerings with poetry, the agony and ecstasy of creation and the birth of a poem are all quite, enigmatic and inexplicable. It may be thanks to some inherent intuitive instincts and acquired abilities: a bane and a boon at the same time. As the poet maestro Edassery avers; there is no undoing or unhooking from the enlightened angler’s grip. Who would not but savour the blissful sweetness of poesy, bequeathed by the divine bards!
Aparna glides and slides within poetry that flows and falls, ascends and sours high. Her poems voice the incompatibility and incessant conflicts and frictions between the penchant for sharp edges and the intense transformative urges characteristic of adolescence. And this results in the blooming of unpremeditated poetic sensibilities.
She confesses the trajectory of her poetic inspiration:
It is better to write than die
With my fractured fingers
I unlocked my memories
From a word still boiling in my throat-
(Insecure)
Nevertheless, the site of experiences unveiled is not that simple and enchanting. The surfacing urbanistic traits of bitterness, chagrin and complexities of frustrated adolescence are unfolded here:
She absorbed herself;
From those smashed pieces
Her identity, her soul,
By cherishing all her unseen dreams!
(The Untold)
It is the moment of dedication to an apocalyptic voice that burns and blisters oneself.
I wish to be a wound,
On the leg of a maniac.
Bound only by a harsh iron chain,
(Tumour)
At the same time, there is also rival that clamours for the destruction of that wound.
Shapeless, were those pieces of bronze
And they whispered to the fence-
Kill these wounded hearts,
(Burden of oasis)
These poems are the prototypical slices of wildness and adventures for self transformation.
At the same time, poems like Image, The blind, A salute to me attest the signature of a mature poet well accomplished with the craft of composition.
Dualities-Eros and tanthoes, doubts and certainties- dwell in Aparna’s poems. Scintillating visuals jostle with one another. The landscape and mindscape foreground eventualities; virtual or wishful; their boiling and ebullience.
She excels in evoking a synesthesia of images: visual, auditory, olfactory and tactile images can be cited. Certain instances:
The ocean sank,
Also, her sprouting hopes.
Like a falling meteorite,
She kissed the earth under her feet,
(A thought)
To an unknown clumsy clutch,
To the grip of angry teeth,
(Mad blue)
Of emptiness, an eternal colorless tornado
Rushed towards me like a forbidden lie.
(Image)
A piece of gem or a drink,
Can’t satisfy the pangs of fire!
(A silent cry)
Subjective and objective experiences occupy appositely in Aparna’s poems. The unfolding of the self in the line My skin is being peeled off/ By the influence of my inner blaze is complementary to the description of the faceless, nameless ‘he’ without identity.”Never knowing about the approaching fate/ He stood there with a bent head/ He was number 58.
The poem Honey is quite specific and unique in this collection. An explicit bright moment:
With his long fingers holding a small palm,
It was so childish and strong too,
Both tried to become one,
By simply melting each other''
Her poems sparkle with poetic tropes. A paradigmatic one, unfolding her unique perspective:
They observed the beehives
In between the fat thighs of the bamboos
And the queen bee collecting nectar
From the red flowers of freedom.
(A simple animation)
Here is a young poet, capable of launching a challenging and hazardous journey into the vast ocean of experiences. May she prevail in her endeavours.
Translated by Dr.Indira, H.O.D, Dept. of English (Rtd.), Govt. Sanskrit College, Pattambi.
