Book Review by Avantika Devray in The Four Quarters Magazine

http://tfqmagazine.org/issue/august-2013/avantika-devray/

THE LAND ABOVE WATER: MANIK SHARMA, WRITERS WORKSHOP 2012

Manik Sharma’s “The Land Above Water” is a collection of thirty odd short poems that leave the reader puzzled and charmed at the same time because of their brevity, their unusual style and their equally unusual rhythm. Mostly unrhymed, these poems seem to be explorations of the poet’s mind into the less charted terrain of everyday things which have been visualised with a difference. Sharma’s poetry can put a reader to the test of being able to comprehend their character and yet create a connect through their sonority.

Notably, the titles of many of the poems seem to have no connection whatsoever with the content. One might expect something from the title at first, but as the poem proceeds, it appears that the poet has written about something completely different. So much so that one might even wonder about the relevance of the title. Perhaps it is this feature that brings them much closer to the heart than other longer and more elaborate poems. In “Living away from mother”, which is a short poem of not more than eight lines, he asks: “Why does mother/ write letters in the dark, / They rain not/ in her arms”. He manages to convey the pain dexterously, albeit in a curtailed fashion. Many of his lines move with a staccato beat, and never numb even for a moment. However, the poet does not seem to have intended to imbue many of his poems with a sense of finality. Apprehension and indecisiveness rule them as they waver throughout the collection.

‘The Auto-rickshaw diaries’ is one of the longest poems in the collection. It is structured in parts which separately narrate three different accounts of an auto-rickshaw ride. Composed of diverse images, this poem is a skilled attempt at analyzing the nuances of observation. In the first section, “By the road”, the descriptions are succinct and direct. But what stand out most evocatively are images of the breeze, the rainwater, the tree on which apples grow aplenty and the lull in the movement of the ‘tuk-tuk’ that sends the rider into an effortless siesta. However, the second and third sections give a pale and fading account into the mind of the speaker who feels as though life is slipping from his clutches. “Endless”, the final section in the book, has desperation, pain and not a little bit of pathos embedded in its verses. For example, Sharma writes, “the fatality of things/ has held me by the throat.”

Sharma’s first book of poems has the potential to interest and charm at the same time. It is a work of art, indeed, and we, as readers, may expect more from him.

-Avantika Devray(courtesy,The Four Quarters magazine)