Making a Poem by Vihang Naik – Review

Book – Making a Poem
Author – Vihang A. Naik
Publisher – Authors Press
Year – 2018
Pages – 49
Genre – Poetry
Rating – 4.2/5 stars!

“tonight I am awake
with the paper
and pen” 

And, in general, this is all about which the book Making a Poem is – poetry, poet, making of a poem… Vihang A. Naik, now, is a well-known face in the world of Indian English literature and his poetry has been echoing for almost two and a half-decades now. Known for his wit and succinct poetry-making, Vihang Naik’s collection, Making a Poem, communicates to the readers the art of writing poetry and how does this art actually become the poet’s heaviest load in his or her life. You will feel that once you read the poems.

The chief characteristic of the poems in this collection is the short length, and to move ahead, sweet-sour imagery, and to further conclude, the style of saying what you don’t mean… only 25 poems are included in this collection and some of them have been read by the poet here and there, in poetry meets and radio stations. However, the poems will still emit a newness and many things are fresh about them. The Indianness, the nativity and the ‘local issues’…

“How about making a poem within
a poem? You smell the Ocean and

……
…

the rose. Her odhani stuck to my pen.”

This beautiful style of writing poems will be found most often in the collection. Nevertheless, the poet also takes a sharp delight in reminding the readers about the ephemeral nature of life. He mentions the immortal truths on some occasions in his poems and, to be honest, all that seems very much fitting into the context of the poem. He also makes the readers think or at least give some impetus to the thoughts that poetry and all other forms of art is nothing more than a fool’s wandering about nothing and doing, in fact, nothing. Vihang writes:

“Poet, philosopher
or a fool. Doesn’t make
much difference.”

Full of such negative and positive sentiments, Making a Poem is a collection which will keep the readers alive in the temporal paradise for at least 2-3 hours. It has been divided into 5 parts and each of the parts includes 5 poems. Yes, at times, the poems will seem vague and the casual readers might like to skip and move to the next. Serious readers will have every line to enjoy because vague has its own glory!

You can buy the collection by Vihang from Amazon India by following the link below:

buy the poetry collection – click here – Amazon

review by Avinash for Indian Book Lovers