Hunchprose

by Ranjit Hoskote

What affirms our humanity, enduring beyond our barbarism? Where is home, in a world beleaguered by climate crisis, pandemic and genocide? Hunchprose is Ranjit Hoskote's fierce, poignant testament to these urgencies.The title of this dazzling new collection asserts poetry's claim to be heard above the buzz of data, to transform language, broken by history, into music. Vibrant with linguistic experiment, Hunchprose weaves unpredictable patterns, celebrates our plural selves. In the erasure of ancient scripts, the melting Arctic ice, a lion tamer's primal fear, we recognize vulnerability and rupture. A dancer's courage, a leather worker's revolutionary promise, a locksmith's passion for ruins inspire us to redeem ourselves through love, doubt, hope and dream. Infused with wry humour, informed by the wisdom traditions, Hunchprose urges us to look at our world, and within ourselves, with renewed ardour.

Genres: Poetry

99 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 8, 2021

Reviews

[Areeb Ahmad (Bankrupt_Bookworm) · Rating 4 out of 5]

"He calls me Hunchprose but what's a word
between murderous rivals?
Across from me he strops his fine blade
smooth talker barefaced liar pissfart
teller of tall tales who wraps you up
in his flying carpet serves you snake oil
carries off the princess every time.
And I what can I offer you except
fraying knots coiled riddles scrolled bones
keys to doors that were carted away by raiders
betrayed by splayed light and early snow.
Lost doors I could have opened with my breath.
Call me Hunchpraise. I bend over my inkdrift words.
And when I spring back up I sting."

// Hunchprose


Hunchprose is quite a prominent departure from Hoskote's previous collection, Jonahwhale. I found the former airy and light, the latter dense and weighty. Brevity is championed in one, breadth of expression in the other. The first is minimalist, the second maximalist. It is a great switch, subtly showing Hoskote's poetic prowess who is very successful with both approaches. The poems in here are usually short and new ones start only on odd pages so there's also a lot of white space. It contributes to the general tone, fluid and graceful. There is something elusive them, the meanings not wholly in our grasp, portions hovering out of view. There's a unity of vision, but the poems are expansive, yoking together a wide range of less-known subjects & sources, incidents & events. Much left is unsaid in an elliptical collection: poetry as intricate embroidery, as silent evocation of ourselves.

[Shashank · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poignant and precise, leaves a beautiful tale of longing to a city I have never been to. Its a bird untouched, you just gaze from a distance and wonder of the possibilities of its existence.