THERE is a peculiar trend in recently published collections of ghazals and nazms: the blurbs contain highly laudatory opinions and strong recommendations, many of which unfortunately do not match the contents of the book. Ravish Nadeem’s Dehshat Kay Mausam Main Likhi Nazmain moves away from this trend; instead of far-fetched blurbs, the back of the book is adorned with a small poem which describes Nadeem’s relationship with his poetry.

Displaying a healthy confidence in his own work, Nadeem begins by asserting that he has never felt the need to question the link he has established with his poetry during the last 25 years. Then he goes on to describe this relationship as the breaking open of the oppression of time and space. As the poem develops, you get a better sense of what Nadeem is trying to do than you could from reading the comments of half a dozen critics and poets.

Nadeem has cultivated a modernistic stance and his poems are remarkable for their freshness and candour of expression. Bringing together unusual and startling images from contemporary life, he writes sharp lines describing the drift towards meaninglessness in a highly politicised world. One of the most unusual poems in the collection, ‘Shaitan News ki Headlines’ is a stringing together of a series of news headlines which have supposedly been telecast on a network. Caustic and ironical, the poem mocks the way news is projected and the wayward world it emerges from: the pharaoh promises a referendum; a severe energy crisis develops in hell; a new Hollywood version of the Titanic featuring Noah’s Ark is released; and Ram and Sita are involved in a domestic squabble.

As the poem concludes with the apparently insane ramblings of Bishan Singh from Manto’s ‘Toba Tek Singh’, you begin to think that the ancient world becomes absurd when you reduce it to breaking news. Or is the reference mocking our modern world and its absurd concepts? If one poem could be selected to define the mood of the entire collection, then surely this is the one.

However this is not the only remarkable poem in this book. There are not many poems in the book so one gets the impression that they have been carefully selected. There is a unity of mood in the poems, a similarity of approach, although the themes are diverse. Sometimes Nadeem fashions poems out of negatives and opposites, such as the three puffs on a non-smoking day. Titled ‘No-Smoking Day Par Pehla/Doosra/Teesra Kash’, the three puffs are the three poems developed out of this contradiction. In the poem called ‘Breaking News’ a poet jumps to his death from an 11-storied ghazal and a poem explodes in chaos and smoke as it is bombed. The breaking news in the poem is that poetry can be initiated anywhere and a poem is to be found anywhere, even in the most unexpected place. This reminds me of a powerful poem by Sarwat Hussain, ‘Aik Nazm Kahin se Bhee Shuru ho Sakti Hai’, in which he had developed the premise that a poem can start from any point and consist of unusual combinations.

All in all, this collection is an excellent example of the recent trends in Urdu poetry; it is innovative and contemporary. The book is neatly designed and well produced, especially as it is devoid of the gaudy look which characterises many poetry collections printed these days.

Asif Farrukhi is a writer and translator. He teaches liberal arts and Urdu and is the editor of the literary journal Duniyazaad.

Dehshat Kay Mausam Main Likhi Nazmain

(POETRY)

By Ravish Nadeem

Ilqa Publications, Lahore

ISBN 978-9696400219

93pp.