Tugging at the heartstrings . . .
Tulip Chowdhury enjoys a swaying bunch of poetry
Rough Edges, Sabahat Jahan, writers.ink
Poetry nourishes and refreshes the soul. And Sabahat Jahan's collection of poetry, Rough Edges, does just that. It is like a gust of fresh air to the reader. Her poems are thought provoking and reflective of a young mind of this generation. Through concise words and phrases she expresses her rich imaginative self. Simple in approach, yet the poems touch the reader's mind and make him or her delve into deeper meanings. The poem 'Familarity' speaks of the truth of our imperfect lives. As Jahan says: I stood in the doorway with my bags packed,In the coat you hated …
Years passed, I was ready to leave
Instead, I joined you on the balcony
To watch young boys grow
Into bitter old men. In the poem 'Heartbreaker', the poet speaks of having left everything for one person while the chosen one takes the other hundred doors open to him. She writes: A hundred doors beckoned you….
You stepped through them all In 'Acquaintance', the three simple lines take up a long question of human relationship with the words, Do you remember me?
You have been carrying my heart in your pocket For a decade or more…Sometimes Jahan's imagination reflects freshness of a new kind. For instance, reflecting on love and sharing, Jahan writes in 'A Poem': If time were bread
I would cut it up into pieces,
Saving each piece to eat with you….. Some of the poems are a particular illustration of the vivid imagination of the poet. Her metaphors are also very effective in the use of the words. In the poem 'Burning', the poet's imagination delves deep into the mind of the reader as she writes: I opened my eyes
Defying the brightness of the midday sun
You walked across the burning floorCarrying my melting heart in your hands… Poems are supposed to make a soul smile with their easy to accept life axioms. Jahan's poems do just that. The reader relaxes with the straightforward yet precise wordings of the poems, ready to fall under their spell. Reading one poem does something to the senses and so another one has to be read. Even if the thoughts are sad one can phrase them easily through the words of the poet. You tell yourself, "I didn't know my deep thoughts could be put so simply and beautifully!" That is what Jahan does. Through her poems she reaches out to the heart strings and tugs at them so beautifully! The subjects of her poems are images of love and relationship, the complexities of life. Some touch on everyday joys and sorrows. Hope and frustration play their roles in her poetry. The reader sees life caught in the words of poetry through the poet's eyes. And indeed the cover of the book showing an open window seems to open the mind's door to the rich assortment of ideas in the book, indeed seems to reach out to a bigger world beyond. Jahan completed her higher education in the United States. And in the faraway land her loneliness is reflected in the poem 'Home'. The very first line of the poem, I have lost the place where I once belonged…., opens the way for the rest of the poems that speak of flowers, mangoes and blistering hot afternoons. There are poems about fear, doubt and despair. The poem 'Fear' starts with intriguingly: Fear seeps into the vein
Like ice water
Trickling down the spine…….. And then the poem 'Doubt' comes with Doubt settles in
Like the three-day dust…….. The other poems come with messages of life, survival and love. The poems are down to earth and yet breath-catching for the mind, like truths driven home at one blow. To the reader the collection of poems is like discovering a treasure grove. Jahan speaks of love with passion. In the poem 'Ordinary Love' she writes: The vague sense of familiarity
The wonderful ease of your hands
Cupping my damp face------ Wet with happy tears… Indeed tears, happy tears that express love in its sublime form! Sabahat Jahan was born in Dhaka. She has been writing poetry since her early teens. Her poems have received recognition at home and abroad. This debut collection awakens aesthetic senses and encourages us to recognize the beauty of our imperfect lives. The time spent reading the poems indeed wakes up the soul.
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