Book Review : Lei – A wreath for your soul
By Somali K Chakrabarti
A few months back I came across this book titled “Lei” and got a free kindle version via amazon.in. Since I was told that the book “Lei” is a collection of short poems on nature and life, I thought of checking it.
According to the author Somali Chakrabarti, her book “Lei” is “Inspired by Nature, reflecting on life, ‘Lei’ is a series of short/micro poems. Each poem is like a fragrant flower, is meant to celebrate life, generate positivism, soothe, nourish and rejuvenate the soul”.
Each short poem is accompanied by an image. The author appears to have curated images from the internet that has an impact on her and has penned down the micro-poems. Some of these short poems are very nice and have the potential to inspire others.
In an image of a bee approaching a flower the author writes:
“Buzzing wings over
Bright blossoms of red
Clover
Flies the pollinator
In meadows seeking nectar
Buff tailed Bumble Bee!”
At a time when bees are increasingly getting wiped out by the pesticide residues, it is time to focus our attention on these minute creatures. Without bees the impact on pollination would be huge. If there is no pollination then there can be no crops and no food. Farmers in China are already facing massive challenges and are manually undertaking pollination.
On the left side of the page was another short poem under the title friendship:
“Innocent eyes
Marvel at the beauty of
Burgeoning friendship”
Infact I had first read these lines along with the image of the bee and felt that is also apt. The relation between a flower and a bee can also be termed as a friendship. The bee takes the nectar as well as the pollen from the flower and helps in fertilisation. Propagation of one’s lineage is one of the main focus of the animal world (including humans). So it can also be said that the bee is being offered the nectar as a gesture for helping in pollination ie. helping the future generations of the flower. Show this to kids and they should be more creative in finding out meanings than we adults are capable of.
In an image of a captive elephant being caressed by a lady, she writes
“A soft tender touch
To soothe the sore sting of
Human greed for tusk”
And to bolster the seriousness of the issue, the fact of nearly 100 elephants being killed for their tusk every 24 hours is mentioned in the footnote.
When will this greed end? Unless each one of us point it out again and again through films, images, articles, poems and any other medium available to us, we can’t bring change.
There was a time when we used to hear the words of the poets in various poetry recitation sessions. Today with the advent of technology, one can juxtapose such images with poems and create even more powerful communication. So I am very excited at the potential of such poems for conservation of nature and wildlife. This is the first book by Somali. I feel there is more to come in future.
The book “Lei – A wreath for your soul” is available on kindle. It is priced at Rs. 133/–
You can buy the book from Amazon India by clicking this link:
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