Fire to Ash

230.00

Author: Harvinder Kaur
Published Date: 01/04/2020
ISBN: 978-81-945093-3-2
Paperback: Paperback
Pages: 120
Categories: ,

Description

This book captures the changing colours on the rainbow-path of love, the red and blue, the turquoise and indigo, the infra and ultra, the shade and sunshine of the heart unfolding in everyday living — shared through pithy poems and photographs. The pink blush of love’s blossom, the orange laughter of relationships, the grey ash from brunt-out flames colour the palette of this book, where common nouns become sacred doorways that speak of a nuanced heart-space as seemingly ordinary things drench in love’s light.

In this unique collection, Harvinder Kaur combines her skills and sensitivity both as a photographer and as a poet to offer deep insights into human relationships, and the world that she perceives through her own special lens. Every page is a visual delight, and the short verses that accompany them set this book apart. These evocative poems and images are juxtaposed in creative ways, sometimes through direct connections, and at other times in more subtle ways, bringing light and shadow to the “spaces that matter”. In a world of social media, a boat out at sea suggests loneliness. Lovers and laptops have much in common, and some addictions go beyond cigarettes. Harvinder finds poems everywhere, whether in the bark of a tree, or the chaos of traffic, and while much is said in just a few words, there is even more left unsaid. This book offers a feast both for the eyes and the mind. — Menka Shivdasani

Fire to Ash and then ash to fire. In this book, as if moonstruck, images and words melt into each other effortlessly, flame after flame. And the starkness of black and white stirs the naked truth of now or never. — Sukrita Paul Kumar

I first came across Harvinder’s poems during the MBILF-Poetry Chain 2019 readings. She was pure discovery, a genuine untainted talent. Besides being a first-grade poet she is also a gifted photographer. There are those moments in her poems you cannot really move away from, and it is as if you have to pluck your heart away leaving shreds of it back in her poetry. As Harvinder tells us, some flames burn forever. Hers surely does. Her powers of observation and linking of phrases captivate and stun. Sometimes a leaf curls up/ looking like a sun-bird or love doesn’t want to iron/ it snuggles in the folds take one’s breath away. These poems may be tiny, they may not fit any particular definition of poetry, but as treasures in a jewel box, they are priceless. — Gopi Krishna Kottoor

These poems in Harvinder Kaur’s debut book Fire to Ash often arising out of everyday “ordinary” objects are splinters of passion with the recurring theme of intense longings and absences. Besides the striking imagery in her poems, her photographs in the book will enchant the reader equally. You are then left with a heady mix of light, shadows, heat, sublimity, and a certain melancholy. Kaur’s poetic journey has been a long and remarkable one — it was time for her to come out of her hiding and share her immense talent with the world. — Gayatri Majumdar

You may also like…