Alok Mishra’s debut poetry collection, 13 Untitled and Weird Poems, has been appreciated and liked by many critics and the readers of modern poetry in India. In this short and sharp collection of poems, the poet has tried to gather fragments together and make an impact like the Waste Land by T. S. Eliot. However, he could not reach, certainly, there. Nonetheless, Alok has done very well with whatever he could with the fragments of thoughts that he could conceive and generate ‘that night’.

As a lover of poetry, I was more than curious as soon as I saw the very title of this collection. Untitled and Weird poems will certainly light up the minds of the curious poetry readers any day and I was not an exception to it. The collection opens with a dilemma and ends with one as well. I can certainly take the liberty to cite the entire text of poem number 13:

“Change.”

And that’s it!

So, if you are thinking what I thought, you must read this collection before you read anything else this weekend! The collection is certainly weird enough to keep you occupied for more than the ’10 minutes’ which the author seeks from you – you will have the aftermaths of reading these poems. Alok Mishra, as a poet, has always been drawn towards creating the open-ended poems. You can find the poems on his website which are open and endless at times. The same has been done, to a limited extent, in this collection – 13 Untitled and Weird Poems.

Not only the details above, the poet has also asserted many other things in his collection. For an example, he has tried to put (openly) his faith, the religious faith, on the line. Alok writes:

“….
…
Death.
Birth.
Smile.
Trust.
Ram.” (Poem number 7)

The lines are from a poem which is a different kind of verse. Each line has only one word and it goes for 15 lines of length. I have quoted only the last 5 lines of it.

Some of the poems talk about the degenerating humanity and humankind which is only going astray with the increased intrusion of the ‘modern’. Poems are pessimistic and poems are also optimistic as well as mystic at times. So, only with the 13 poems, the poet has tried to offer something for everyone and he has partly succeeded to make a balance. However, the purpose of sending the readers into nostalgia, the future and the sordid present has been achieved; one can easily feel that after reading the collection by Alok.

The Verdict:
Well, as the collection of poems take only about 10 minutes of your life, I will surely suggest every poetry reader should read this collection of poems by Alok Mishra. He has been writing for almost a decade now and one can see how his poetry has matured over time. If you want to read something which is modern and realistic, or rather fanciful and weird, or something altogether different – you must go through this poetry collection!

Get your Kindle copies now:

Alok Mishra’s poetry collection – buy from Amazon now

review by Ashutosh for BookWorm Reviews