In Between Lines

The beauty of poetry is that it does not spell out exactly what the written word wants to say. Hidden in between those sentences is the abstract meaning of poetry. There is always one literal meaning, the second, deeper meaning or real meaning and then there is a third, the abstract meaning of a poem, that each reader discovers according to their own mindset, psychological background, culture, upbringing and intellect.

When I was writing my poems in the book Amaira, the little woman, I wanted them to be simpler than my first book, quiet happiness. The poems are almost a deconstructed version of the complex thought.

Each time I read the poems by my most favourite poets - - - Jalaluddin Rumi. Khalil Gibran and Rabindranath Tagore, what I find most apparent is that the language (English translation) is very simple, but the thought behind every line is of such a high level that only some can truly decipher it. The gist is never compromised or lost in translation.

I have always aimed at writing a poem in which the overall thought is more important than getting into the arrangement of each sentence. That way, there is always something mysterious tucked under a word which makes sense differently to different people.

When I say ‘evening’ in one of my poems, it refers to the second half of life, referring back to Carl Jung’s philosophy of two halves, where the first half of life is full of searching, striving, chasing, earning, pushing, rushing, enduring and relentlessly running towards what we feel is needed and wanted while the second half involves an inward journey toward wholeness and meaning.

When I say ‘lake’ or ‘home’, it actually refers to the mind’s qualities of that time. The poems are more metaphorical than literal. The stages of Bud, Bloom, Blossom and Butterfly are metaphors for a growing woman. Every word is a clue that opens the doors to a new phase in life. The entire gist of the poem is narrowed down into the last few lines and if that thought gets across to the reader, the poet wins!

Poetry is not always about finding the right rhyming pattern or the exact synonyms. I started believing in the power of free verse and minimalism right after my quiet happiness phase , and the beginning of my Amaira phase. But I did not know that the phase I was entering into, led to the birth of Amaira…

So dear readers, read and re-read in between the lines, each poem from my book Amaira, the little woman with a renewed mindset, opening your third eye of the soul. It's then that you will find the abstract meaning of a poem that relates to your own life. And you’ll realize, Amaira’s story is actually YOURS…a story woven by your own mind!

:: In between lines...::