Review of Blue Rose [ Jagari Mukherjee ]

Blue Rose 

Jagari Mukherjee
PP 64
Bhashalipi  , 2017,
Price  100 INR

 

Dedicated to her grandfather , this book is not just a delight to behold , but a delight to read , hold and savour each tenderly written verse . The cover has been exquisitely designed by  Sanjib Chowdhury, and each  poem is  a literary delight.  Written during different phases of her life ,  the poems , however , do not follow any chronological pattern .

  'From the netted Window' , is a  poem ,  written when the poet was just an eighteen year old and it had the power to  immediately transport me  to the spot where she sits weaving this delicate verse , enriched by stunning imagery .   

'The cattle return at twilight
 And the white tents
are abuzz with conversation;
 .......A delicate fragrance
Comes in through my netted window .
Thoughts of you cluster in my heart .'

'Living free of you' p [36]  happens to be her latest one , where we glimpse  a slightly 'changed person'  and the last stanza of the poem stayed with me , long after I had put the book on my book shelf, within easy reach , so that I could stretch my hand and dip into it , whenever the heart desired .
'There is no place
For poison in my soul ,
I will strive to suffuse
My being  with the nectar of hope ...
and some wisdom , and
 Live free of you .
I don't choose the dark ."

 I found the hope inherent in the poem  quite soothing and edifying . 
A  book  rich with poems on love , loss and  reclamation,  a book which dances on feet wearing anklets of hope. A book , despite a lingering hue of loss , is so colourful , that you find every imaginable colour splashed in the poems ,  so much so that , like the poet ,  not being 'a lithe dancer' , you want to dance away , sublimating the pain that crushes your ribs , and are happy dancing carelessly , watched by  roses.

"My dress  so blue
that it hurts the eyes of the beholders....
.My mind so blue and cold' [p 54, A Dance]
 
It was  with a happy glow , that I closed the book , as all the blue hues in her poems[' touch away my blues to sweeter greens' [Raid p 12]  'roses that turned blue'  [Blue Rose , p 11] 'Blue thistles ,   scarlet roses and green'  [Traitor, p 31] , 'blue wine air'[ The Night passed 37  ]  and yes, there is  a 'Blue Sweater' too! [p 39]
"There's  a dry blue rose in the closet
All pressed and crumbling .
Your blue sweater is stained
With the colour of its petals ."

Hats off to this poet whose heartfelt , delicate verses  beautifully managed to lift me from my blues .
What a treasure of a book !  A book to be possessed by every lover of good poetry .