Closure - Some Poems and A Conversation

by Kamala Suraiyya Das, Suresh Kohli

This unusual volume brings together two disparate voices, of friends who met and conversed over many years, in different cities and at different stages in their life, both of whom turned to poetry in moments both anxious and happy. The poems by Kamala Das include the very last one she wrote before death claimed her, and in many ways Suresh Kohli's work reflects similar concerns, with death and distances, both physical and emotional.

168 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2009

About the author

See also Madhavikutty
Kamala Suraiyya (born Kamala; 31 March 1934 – 31 May 2009), also known by her one-time pen name Madhavikutty and Kamala Das, was an Indian English poet and littérateur and at the same time a leading Malayalam author from Kerala, India. Her popularity in Kerala is based chiefly on her short stories and autobiography, while her oeuvre in English, written under the name Kamala Das, is noted for the poems and explicit autobiography.

Her open and honest treatment of female sexuality, free from any sense of guilt, infused her writing with power, but also marked her as an iconoclast in her generation. On 31 May 2009, aged 75, she died at a hospital in Pune. Das has earned considerable respect in recent years.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Arun Sankar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kamala Das was a hard to miss writer when she was alive. She was bold, up to the point and relentless in her writings. Closure was rather different. For most of it, closure felt like a journey through somebody's journal, in its raw and fearless form. I haven't heard of Suresh Kohli before, but going through his conversations with Kamala Das makes me discern that they were close pen friends.

[Vishwajeet · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good introduction to Kamala das. Though focusing more into her poetry at her final days

[Shweta Ganesh Kumar · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's been a while since I sat down and read a book of poems.
I must confess, it was the name Kamala Das, inscribed on the cover that attracted me to this tome. The book has poems from her as well as her long time friend, Suresh Kohli who is not just a literary critic and writer but also a documentary film maker.
The book also has a conversation between them which acts as a bridge between their poems.

The book starts with Kamala Das's poems - the overarching themes are that of death, pain, aging and memories of childhood and youth. The poems are deceptively simple, lyrical and it is hard to leave them at just one read. And even harder to stop thinking about them.
In the poet's own words -

A kind of fishing

I shall cast my nets
in the ruffled sea
of my past
and shall fish out poetry
that is neither glad
nor sad
but can cut
precisely the gut
to wake you
out of dreams ...

Suresh Kohli's poems pale in comparison. They are mostly travelogues set in verse and did not really strike a chord, except for the odd memorable moment like this one -
"Freedom is merely a tourist spot" (from the poem New York)

Of all his poems in the collection, it's the ones that he has penned on the film industry that leave a mark, presumably because of his intimate knowledge of the same.
I would recommend the collection solely for Kamala Das's poems that leave you with a bittersweet ache in the heart.

[Nivedita · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars because I was unable to appreciate Suresh Kohli's poems.