Ayaz Rasool Nazki is a poet of repute. Besides his proffesional excellence as a biological scientist and a state bureaucrat he is author of a number of books in Urdu and Kashmiri Language both in prose and poetry. His poems in Urdu and Kashmiri are an indispensable constituent of Kashmir poesy. His recently published book “Songs of Light” is his first collection of English poems. The book is published by Writers Workshop, Lake Gardens, Kolkata. Though a maiden attempt in English poetry, the poet instantaneously builds a strong impression on the reader. The form and imagery, diction and rhyme are all of a master artist. Almost all the poems seem expressive of the Kashmir background scene both the turbulent present and the glorious past.
Born and brought up in Kashmir the poet is deeply embedded in her soil and profoundly vociferous of the suffering of the masses amidst the nature’s bounties provided there in abundance. I quote:
They came
and put the landscape on fire
the tulips
of multitude of colours
a thousand hues
and they withered
ash to ash
colour to colorless
Kashmir with its magnificent sights and sceneries, valleys and hilltops, brooks and cascades, lakes and gardens has always been a favorite subject for poets and writers but for Nazki it is a passion which conjures up millions of masterstrokes in his pen. He is a mystic deeply intoxicated with the passion of expression in his own way. He says:
One day
I will also retire
to the hermitage
by the stream
and count beads
with shaking fingers
and aching bones
The poetry of Nazki seems the result of some extempore condition which very few poets experience. Such poems are always the result of some intuition, some instinctive condition, without the use of any rational processes.
In his poem “It doesn’t care” he maintains that his poetic expressions are not his own, but something that is conferred upon him from above, an unknown power that comes of its own keeps hovering around him for a while without making a sound and finally settling down on his pen.
it comes in
of its own accord
in the dead of night
in the scorching sun
never knocking at the door
——-
winking through the mirror
rocking n the chair
fiddling with the books
——-
humming under the breath
till it descends through
my pen
His imagination soars far higher and higher taking flight up into the unknown suggesting his rendezvous with the absolute truth. He feels presence of the sacred souls around, those who lived thousands of years ago, sages and savants, the indispensable part of the glorious Kashmir past, moving around but concerned only with their own higher purpose, the purpose of being one with their Lord, the Lord personified as Mahadev peak in sight even today. He muses:
Silence has become eloquence
stones have numerous lips
sounds dance upon the sands
tranquility rules the seas
It was a dream
like real
in the foot of Mahadev
i stood alone
————-
a few men wearing robes
looking around moving about
————
i stood in awe
———–
Laxmi Mawas, as it is called, is a stream that flows near the residence of the poet. The brook seems to invoke in him deep recollections of the glorious past connected with the present, the materialistic present. In olden days, this stream which has its source in the feet of Mahadev Peak, believed to be the abode of Lord Shiva, must have been a source of sustenance to numerous saints and savants of yore who lived and performed Tapasya in the serene atmosphere, under the trees and deep caves, obviously a dense forest those days. It is said the honeycombs on the trees in the forest dripped honey endlessly into the water of the stream thus making its water the real nectar, capable to cure all diseases. As stated by the poet many poems in the book are written on the banks of this stream, Laxmi Mawas. His flights of imagination transport him to far off past, the serene and beautiful, sacred and pure! He has lots of sweet reveries which give birth to some masterpiece poems included in the collection.
I quote from his poem – ‘I know’
It was a dream
like real
in the foot of Mahadev
I stood alone
watching the paddy fields
grean and sparkling
then they came
———
“She has chosen
the blessed spot
here she will make her camp”
———-
there she was
a dazzling moon
bedecked bride
loveliest of fairies
in her best
——–
till at last I offered her my little hut
on the stream
and she agreed
to perform her night-long puja
——–
Kashmir, with its long history of highly awakened saints and god men, has always been a fertile ground for the achievement of deepest mystical cognition. The poet seems to be following the line and awakened to some of the divine secrets. As a result most of the poems in the collection are steaming with mysterious mystic perspectives that seem to be the result of his first hand experience. He bursts out in his ecstasy and gives vent to some experience that he seems to have gone through in his imagination.
I learnt all
he taught me
what I did not
he never said
that galaxies shrink into rays
that seas
wind up into drops
and deserts
roll back into grains
——–
I closed my eyes
looked inwards
it was dark
unblemished darkness
no spot
no crevice
black
uninterrupted
———
The book is no doubt a very intelligent collection of the outpourings of a very sensitive mind, one who has attained the heights of perfection both earthly as well as heavenly. They deserve critical appreciation from world-class critics as to me the poems are a direct product of the heart depicting the tender spiritualist attitude profligate everywhere but for only the most sensitive people to visualize.
ABOUT THE REVIEWER
Jawahar Lal Bhat, a Senior Lecturer – English (retired as Principal in 2004) and he has to his credit Six books on English Improvement including one Modernized Grammar and a Book of Essays (Choicest Essays) for IAS and IPS competition Examinations, about 50 articles and write-ups on current Kashmir imbroglio and “Kashmir Pandit displacement” published in various online and print magazines world over
