![\"\"](\"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/COVER-F.jpg\" "\\"COVER")
<\/a>Picking up this slim collection of poems, one wonders whether the dainty yellow paper boats peering at you from the cover are just delicate and frangible or symbolise strength by daring the elements with their fragility and how these connect to the contents of the book. The effect of the poems by Sanjeev Sethi in This Summer and That Summer, however, is not the same as the short and succinct poems leave no doubt about the poet\u2019s ability to express complex emotions with simplicity.<\/p>\nThey say true \u2018poetry is language at its most distilled and most powerful\u2019 and this is precisely what the poems present. In each of the 51 poems in this collection, exquisite wordplay complements the intricate weaving of thoughts, impressions and sentiments.<\/p>\n
The poems carry a heady dose of alliteration and assonance lacing the bitter-sweet cocktail of emotions dished out by the poet. But nowhere does he allow the alliteration to get monotonous and tedious. So one can marvel at the pithiness wrapped in the silken-smooth flow of words whether it is the \u2018Scratch the scab, and sanitise the skin.\u2019 (Life\u2019s Lesson), The celestial sphere sutures me to its stole (Fingerprint), An uncluttered brain is the boulevard of bliss (Worlds) or Goaded by grog music and machismo merge (Tavern Tale). But his skill is not limited to this, Sanjeev virtually paints with words in poems like Pigeons, Garrison Report and Nocturnal Activity.<\/p>\n
While the diversity of content dipped in nostalgia, disillusionment or irony keep the freshness of the familiar alive, the arresting opening lines keep one glued to the pages. The poet beautifully describes the experience of enjoying poetry in one of the poems:<\/p>\n
\u2018If you enter poetry like a nabob before a nautch<\/p>\n
it will leave you listless.<\/p>\n
When you peruse a poem perpend it like a psalm or salat.<\/p>\n
When faith is installed guerdon is assured.<\/p>\n
\u2026When you undress a poem with dignity, delicately like a lover, it will disrobe you of excess, accessing your inner feelings\u2019. (Conduction)<\/p>\n
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Thus, as the \u2018words slither and startle\u2019 and the poet \u2018caress syllables to complete the emptiness of your experience\u2019 a reader can savour the sublimity of lines such as \u2018Some wounds require healing of the hurt\u2019 (Life\u2019s Lesson); \u2018\u2026is there a pesticide for the past?\u2019 (Nocturnal Activity); \u2018He didn\u2019t know, I know, \/baggage is not spatial\u2019 (Ascot) or \u2018We had window-shopped love in frippery of feelings\u2019 (In the Plaza of Prejudice) or \u2018Not remembering is a way of telling oneself, it did not happen\/ Brutal echoes are best treated this way.\u2019 (Winters).<\/p>\n
These surely make the poems more than just \u2018tercets from This Summer and That Summer\u2019.<\/p>\n
This is Sanjeev\u2019s third book of poetry after Suddenly For Someone and Nine Summers Later and with this, he establishes himself as a craftsman who knows his art and his tools as he goes about his task diligently delivering one masterpiece after another. Like droplets of emotion and reason soothing the singe of experience, his verse leaves an indelible impression and one gets the feel of being on one of those pretty paper boats traversing a stream of emotions.<\/p>\n
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