The juxtaposition of two words ‘solitary’ and ‘stillness’ can be intrinsically evocative and nudge one to the mutating landscape of imagination touching upon various subjects. Kiriti Sengupta in his latest volume of poems Solitary Stillness weaves a tapestry of fleeting thoughts, images and themes which are an admixture of the subtle and the deep, contemporary and eternal. The book consists of twenty poems where stillness is rhapsodized, explored in manifold perspectives of the apparent and the real. Rightly does the poet reflect, “A poem should speak for itself and deserves to be interpreted in several ways.”
The world today is a high pitched clamorous blind — alley of chaos and consumerism where man chases material gratification and is obsessed with unmindful pursuits. Amidst this daily drudgery and din one has an epiphany of that much needed pause to ponder, a respite from mundane madness when man can rightfully “stand and stare” and savor stillness.
The very first poem of this volume is “The Pilgrimage” followed by “The Bengali Phenomenon.” Both of them are terse with incisive messages explicit in their inherent simplicity. The interface with stillness occurs in the next poem “Quietude and Loneliness.” The poet exclaims, “For God’s sake, don’t take silence for granted!” This has a hint of allusion to the metaphysical poet John Donne and is evocative of “For God’s sake, hold your tongue…”…