Words from Dust: Poetry of loss and longing

Saikh Md Sabah Al-Ahmed

(sabahalahmed@gmail.com)

The genre of poetry, one would agree, sets itself apart from other forms such as fiction, non-fiction, travelogues, plays, memoirs, etc. It is so because of its ingrained 'poetic license' that naturally comes with it; the poet here is at liberty to play with words that are directly proportional to his or her passions and emotions. The poet doesn't necessarily have to conform to sentence structures or sentence patterns, etc. He or she just has to let the rainbow of words flow effervescently and allow the readers to get a feel of the symbiotic relationship between the poet's words and the poet's world.

The poems of Shaheen Akhtar, a young city-based poet, yoga enthusiast and aspiring ESL Teacher resonate with this very symbiotic relationship and that too with ease and élan. Her debut poetry collection Words from Dust is a clear reflection of her unbridled sway in the art of verse-making. The poems mostly are a reflection of her own personal trials and tribulations, and what's most endearing in this dark phase is how brilliantly she transforms her initial pessimism into positivity. The mundane bumpy road and the usual hiccups couldn't pin her down; on the contrary, she has emerged stronger and vivacious, especially through her poetry. Bibhash Choudhury in his foreword writes: "The book is also indicative of her evolved character as a poet which is reflected in her nuanced changes in evocation across the versified space in these pages. She is a poet whose concerns are humane and driven by the quest for values which hold true for people in a crises-ridden world." This literally sums up everything about the beautiful world of Shaheen's poetry.

In her own words, Shaheen pours her heart out about her poetry: "This book of poems tells a story – how my poetry took birth during my father's illness in 2015. I never knew I had a poet inside me until life's struggles made me write. The book is a collection of poems, based on the realities of life." On the genesis of her collection Words from Dust, Shaheen elucidates on a more sombre note: "It was my father's illness that led to depression and agony (in me). I suppressed my feelings for a long time and when thoughts came to haunt me, I started writing to release my emotions, which eventually gave birth to my poetry. It's the truth of life which inspired me to write first." She then goes on to add: "As I started writing poems, my friends and family began to love the words and insisted on getting a book (of mine) published. This gave me the courage to write more along with the realization that it's only with my father's demise that I finally found my purpose in life. This is how Words from Dust happened." She extols the pristine virtue of 'truth' which she considers as "something you can call genuine", and adds that "If you love truth, you will love Words from Dust as well."

Published by WissenMonk, this beautiful collection is laced with 30 thought-provoking and sensitive 'works of verse', bifurcated into seven distinct themes. Given the depth of Shaheen's poetry, which predominantly revolves around pain and longing, this robust poetic voice is sure to set the alarm bells ringing among the younger breed of verse-makers and anyone who loves poetry just for the sheer love of reading (or feeling) emotions through the prism of words.