Several poems in Smash My Glass depict a restive search for belonging, but as with Chhabra s poems about the quest for faith, the sense of being an existential vagrant, homeless and alone , frequently finds resolution in images of returning light. Other poems deal with a love that has survived loss and remains spontaneous and trusting; with seasonal renewal, particularly the joy of spring; and with the poet s struggle to combat thoughts of death and her own mortality. Diverse though these subjects may be, there is a common thread binding them together. Whether the verse deals with divine or secular love, the horrors of Mumbai street life or the transcendence Chhabra finds in monsoon mist, there is a constant oscillation between a despondent state of mind that threatens to overwhelm the speaker and a very different mood that affords solace and redemption amid a sea of uncertainties. The wrestling-match between pessimism and hope is also enacted in the dialectical structure of many of the poems, which alternates between these two extremes before usually, though not always, coming to rest on the more positive side of the debate. This is at its most marked in the collection s poems about death, in which intimations of mortality are softened by a movement towards calm and resignation. Thus, in This Time... a vision of her slow demise gives way to a sense of clarity . In short, Smash My Glass deals with the full gamut of human emotions, as seen by a poet who is prepared to plunder her innermost feelings and who finds powerful rhetorical strategies in which to convey her angst. As she puts it in the poem Impressions : drawn to the perpetual enigma/ I look for answers everywhere . The prose pieces conclude with a similar assertion of the need for endless self-questioning and a tentative movement towards fulfilment through the belief that within her routine, she must create and recreate new life . Looking for signs , she finds solace in the gift of true love, both human and divine, a state of being that can never be taken for granted and has to be constantly fought for. It is this sense of ongoing struggle that binds the diverse poems of Smash My Glass together and links them umbilically with the collection s prose pieces. Ultimately a narrative of resurgence emerges from the volume s many moments of despondency and gloom; and this is all the more powerful, because it has surfaced from the depths of a conflict that has been played out through the many vacillating moods of Smash My Glass s intricately woven tapestry. --(Prof. John Thieme, University of East Anglia, UK) |
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| Author BIO |
| Geeta Chhabra |
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Geeta Chhabra writes her poems in English and her verse has been translated into Arabic and appears in reputed Arabic journals. Following the success of her first two books: An Indian Ode To The Emirates & No Journey Ends, Smash My Glass showcases some of her latest poems along with prose pieces. The volume is a captivating account of her observations some that are joyful, and some which are laden with grief. As a mentor, critic and guide, Indian poet Nissim Ezekiel encouraged Geeta Chhabra to write and that greatly propelled her poetic expressions. In 2012, Geeta Chhabra received the Poets Printery International Best Poetry Website Award for Creativity and New Age Poetry for her website, where she regularly encapsulates her point of reasoning. In the year 2012, 2014 and 2015 Geeta Chhabra received awards from the Japanese Soka Gakkai International for promoting peace through poetry. Geeta Chhabra is an Indian who divides her time between Mumbai and Dubai.
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| Other Publication By Geeta Chhabra |
Geeta Chhabra
ISBN: 9788182535794
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