Vernal Strokes

Vernal Strokes by Latha Prem Sakhya is a beautifully conceived text wherein the poet meanders down memory lane on the wings of imagination, urging the readers to listen to and experience the magic in her “Words squeezed out of ecstasy and agony”. Just like the warbling of the bird she empathies with, they soothe and disturb the reader. She dexterously captures the kaleidoscopic vision of life in her poetic vignettes. Being extremely sensitive, the poet becomes a seer and a sufferer in many of her poems. And poetry becomes both an effective emotional outlet as well as a clarion call to the lonely, the weak and the suffering. Sweet, small anecdotes built around the world of women, animals, birds and nature show her interacting with them with a high level of empathy. Love of nature and the flush of first love is the magic that predominates in the collection. Nature holds sway in poems like Intimacy which allows the poet to partake in 'nature's daily celebration' and Evening Sky in which the poet uses the cloud to ride to fancy's abode. The work bears a Keatsian sensuousness in many of the nature poems like, The Rill, Nature’s Magic Spell etc. Poems like The Crown of Creation and The Winged Offenders depict the darker side of life as the poet contemplates on the crown of creation, who alone in the gay and wonderful world are 'flurried and harried'. Euphemistic twists to feared aspects of life make them less scary. The much dreaded ’Death’ once conceived as ‘a grim relentless being’ becomes a much welcomed “Black Knight” – a gallant, chivalrous, kind and merciful deliverer and hero who steers the ailing, tired and lonely soul towards eternity where freedom and comfort shall be its portion. The traumatized sensibility of the poet is reflected in many of her poems like Why Are You So Crazy? Agony etc. In the poem Spark she wonders why the adolescent who committed suicide could not find some hand to support him and pull him out of his distress. The same empathy is shown towards the stray pregnant dog (Shall I Let Her Go?); the caged owl (The Lord of the Night); the snake robbed of his fangs and teeth (Sans Fangs, Sans Teeth); the sufferings of the refugees; victims of nature(Elizabeth) and the lonely sufferers in poems like Taj Mahal, When the Birds’ Sing and the Black Knight. The poem entitled Tree depicts the tree as the paradigm of warring humanity. The winged offenders that rape the flower without dreaming that their 'natural act' can kill life is the reverse of the image of the caressing sunbeam that sweeps the stream into his golden arms in the poem The Rill. Poems like Notes of Joy, Little Mynah and Minnows share the joys of the winged creatures that live and enjoy the present moment. The Uncanny Singer is of the bird whose cry portends death and leads the reader directly to poems like Dream Child, Bereft, Agony, and several others that speak about the darker side of life. Where shall we go? Earth Mother, What Am I Now? Anguish and Shaddock are powerful requiems to the destruction of earth and its flora and fauna by uncaring and over exploitative human beings. Magic in the Air and Earth Mother can be read together as poems that lament the destruction of earth. She knows that like Cassandra her words may not be noticed by those deafened by the 'roar of materialistic living'. Despite the painful agony ensconced in many of the poems, there is also a marvelous peace cascading through the pages of the collection The poems often advocate the freedom of individuals as well as other created beings as seen in poems like To Irom Shormila and To Live Freely, The Trapped Bird, Wild Woman and many others. Spaces are important to the poet as time is, for she has the 'attic of the soul' to dump her not so sweet memories. The poems have given the poet the 'space to exist' in her own “unmapped world” as in Wild Terrain. The book unfolds an unconventional ‘love story’ pure and ucomplicated among the writer, the rest of God’s creations and the Creator. Love is the theme of many poems. The first blush of love is described as 'light in my heart' and 'flight in my steps'. The love of the mature woman is equated to ‘a blanket spreading warmth to all under it'. Loss of love may leave the poet shattered like 'shards of a broken pot'. Through the varying shades of love one is however conscious of the poet's nostalgic yearning for youthful love in the prime of its power that manifests itself as a 'wailing banshee' and a quest for the 'gentle shower of love’. Another aspect of love that the poet explores is motherly love that surfaces in poems like Tiny World, My Child, Cameraderie, Girl and Corina. The poem Dream Child talks of the sorrow on the loss of a child who is paradoxically also a part of the poet's self. Latha’s writings connect the reader to an immediacy in their simple elegance and richness of colour. The diversity of her canvas are all reflections on life experiences and address ecological concerns, environmental problems, child abuse, loss of human life, loss of love between people, dreams, hopes, thoughts, friendship, old age, sorrow, faith and even natural disasters. 'Paattie' and 'Amma' are undoubtedly the persons who have influenced and inspired the poet while her husband and daughter prove to be her solace and salvation. The small and the everyday experiences are celebrated. But the whole work bears testimony to the protective mantle of God who is the constant companion of the weary souls through thick and thin. This simple belief in the benevolence of God is suggestive of the robust optimism of Browning. The poems are seemingly simple, yet very dense and layered. It is postmodern in form but quite romantic in content and sentiment.