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My Invented Land New and Selected Poems
DeScriPtion Robin S. Ngangom's poetry is the poetry of feeling, which draws the reader deep into the poet's world. The poems in My Invented Land showcase Ngangom's remarkable range-tracing his poetic arc from the deeply personal to the political, from chronicles of private joys, sorrows and everyday epiphanies to the poetry of witness that gazes unflinchingly at the realities that haunt the Northeast, his native land.
184 pages, Paperback
Published January 20, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 25, 2024
// I Walk the Khasi Winter Sunlight
(after Dennis Brutus)
I walk the Khasi winter sunlight
and see something akin to hope
turning the cherry trees
with an old grief returning.
When violent blood sleeps under winter earth
unrelenting youth retraces it steps
on winter's street with a lover's swagger
and I watch beauty from a careful distance
outlined on December's warm meadows
their laughter woven in the wind.
I hear again the merry guitar
and church bells ringing for the erring sons
and see the custodians of justice
inside their polished gods,
on their composed visages an unreal light.
And I think of the hills' imprisoned evenings,
and the boys far from home squatting in their cells,
in their breasts hope fading
and grim embers burning their eyes,
their days an empty platter
their nights a dark shroud.
And I think of their captors
feeding the meals of hatred,
and their mothers awaiting their return
their faces veiling the mottled colour of fear,
and only lugubrious drums beating in my heart.
Excerpts from the Introduction:
"Manipur, my native place in Northeast India, is in a state of anarchy, and my poetry springs from the cruel contradictions of that land... If I had not made use of this hillworld, my poetry would have been false."
"I don't agree with the view that a writer requires a tradition to lean upon, to till the soil which others have made fertile, and harvest ideas for himself. A writer can be influenced by anything, and he would be able to write in any country other than his own. But he has to reclaim his individual voice."
"Each word must be fashioned from a private hurt, and writing poetry is like trying to keep a deadline with death."
(after Dennis Brutus)
I walk the Khasi winter sunlight
and see something akin to hope
turning the cherry trees
with an old grief returning.
When violent blood sleeps under winter earth
unrelenting youth retraces it steps
on winter's street with a lover's swagger
and I watch beauty from a careful distance
outlined on December's warm meadows
their laughter woven in the wind.
I hear again the merry guitar
and church bells ringing for the erring sons
and see the custodians of justice
inside their polished gods,
on their composed visages an unreal light.
And I think of the hills' imprisoned evenings,
and the boys far from home squatting in their cells,
in their breasts hope fading
and grim embers burning their eyes,
their days an empty platter
their nights a dark shroud.
And I think of their captors
feeding the meals of hatred,
and their mothers awaiting their return
their faces veiling the mottled colour of fear,
and only lugubrious drums beating in my heart.
Excerpts from the Introduction:
"Manipur, my native place in Northeast India, is in a state of anarchy, and my poetry springs from the cruel contradictions of that land... If I had not made use of this hillworld, my poetry would have been false."
"I don't agree with the view that a writer requires a tradition to lean upon, to till the soil which others have made fertile, and harvest ideas for himself. A writer can be influenced by anything, and he would be able to write in any country other than his own. But he has to reclaim his individual voice."
"Each word must be fashioned from a private hurt, and writing poetry is like trying to keep a deadline with death."
September 4, 2023
All the poems in this book are eccentric, laced with flavors of youth, unrest, romanticism and the simple lives of people from north-east. It built a bridge for me to connect with the people from green hills and farthest corner of the country, to understand their way of living. Great read.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews