Promise: A Life

Poetry can be a chaos of movement, a kaleidoscope of words which spill into pattern and move away. Words which spell disproportion and reckless seeking at times, and at others make a sage or sorrowful summation.Ranjani Neriya's collection of 64 poems - PROMISE-a life - is one such. A mutant thread seems to run through the poems, stringing beads of reminiscence strewn along the path of childhood, whilst emerging into the growing vision of an ever-expanding world. Every poem evokes a different picture, a different emotion - the rasp of her Grandfather's beard, her mother's birthplace, her father's camera, her geography teacher, erstwhile ushering in vignettes of iconic figures like the hardworking women at the laterite quarry, women fighting for their rights, even a searing study of a woman who thirsts not for water alone. The agony of dumb, driven animals and uncelebrated creatures too find a place along with poems which poignantly treat loneliness and bereavement. All are presented with great skill and virtuosity.Whether moving a grain of sand into a heart-block or shattering a boulder to clear the mind, the poems delight in delineating vistas seen with a blissful 'inner eye'. PROMISE is a book to be treasured.