By Nirmaldasan
-- appeared in the November 2011 issue of the Journalism Online newsletter --
Poetry, according to K.S. Subramanian, is a vocal representative of the trends of a period. To measure up to this task of reflecting reality, a poet may have to tread on gnarled sand where the past and the present clash revealing a very bleak future. The mythic Aswathama gives a piece of his mind and one can hear the groans of a city. One also meets with masked gunmen in a Silicon Hub that ‘flourishes in the bay of its mantra’.
But even as trends change, language changes too. In a preface to his second book of verse titled Treading on Gnarled Sand, Subramanian writes: “I have produced a reluctant ensemble of free verse and traditional meter and tried assiduously to follow the conservative track. If there are deviations they are unintentional. But it must be stated that I would rather deviate a little to bring out the emotion than camouflage it in form. After all lucidity matters as much as dexterity of language.”
Interestingly, the poet is most lucid whenever there is a display of linguistic dexterity. Here are a few examples. In ‘The Changing Face of Bangalore’, there is this stunning paradox: “Death catches up with age! / But a city ages even in death.” And in the ‘Rain’, the final quatrain drops a nugget of ecological wisdom:
“Be it placing the day of the Bang,
building dams or space sentries;
Man is still not master of his day,
a quake or monsoon ruins his peace.”
Most of the poems in this volume under review are in free verse. One such verse is titled ‘On the Fine Thin Sand of Goa’. But more than the irregular lines, it is the concluding, near-metrical quatrain that touches the heartstrings of the reader:
“Foreigners sink a fortune to
Discover happiness here;
Goans sink their happiness
To strike a fortune abroad.”
All reviewers have their personal likes and dislikes. The poem that most appealed to me is titled ‘An Incantation’. Here are the concluding lines:
“‘Veerabahu! Veera Mahendra!’
The voice trails off too soon
As lids close for the night.”
Treading On Gnarled Sand is K.S. Subramanian’s second volume of poetry, published by the Calcutta-based Writers Workshop. The hardback limited edition is priced Rs. 150.