Description

I write this in pencil tentatively
For I write of great civilisations
I write as if I know nothing… 

Poetry is not about nature but about Homer. This means that poetry is not about original talent but about furthering a tradition. What tradition does an Indian English poet follow? Answering this question by honouring poets who have gone before him, Hoshang Merchant becomes a Poet’s Poet.

Definitely a major poet still at the very top of his game as these new poems show. — Vivek Narayanan

Hoshang Merchant is a poet of thirty years standing with twenty-five books of poetry. His papers are archived at Koch Library, Cornell University. He taught poetry and creative writing at University of Hyderabad for twenty-eight years. He was awarded the Rainbow Warrior Award for his life work in 2019.

Reviews

Sristi Sengupta in Furore Literary Magazine

He references conversations with other poets, daughters, sisters, doctors, directors, gods – empowering their memories and their lives through information that first puts the readers to shame. Because this information is not different from what we might eavesdrop on a local train or the bazaar. How poets in all of life’s glory are lauded for their pain more often than not for the mere sake of us setting them apart.

Gankhu Sumnyan in The Sunflower Collective

Where the connections are made well, Merchant achieves an almost transcendental, ecstatic effect, providing much to be drunk in. His touches are light, the jumps and the connections graceful, and the observations sharp. The tone is steady and bracing, at the breathing decibel of a prayer. The “Elpenor Canto,” the “Jonah Canto,” and “Egyptian Canto” are some examples.