Sutanuka Ghosh Roy


Looking Within: a review of Hesitancies by Sanjeev Sethi

Title: Hesitancies

Author: Sanjeev Sethi

Page: 93

ISBN: 978-81-952562-3-5(Hardbound)

Edition: (2021)

Published by Classix (a Hawakal imprint)

Available through Amazon

Hesitancies is Sanjeev Sethi’s fifth collection of poems. He is a widely published poet and is the author of Suddenly for Someone (1988), Nine Summers Later (1997), This Summer and That Summer (2015), and Bleb (2021). Sethi is the joint-winner of Full Fat Collection Competition-Deux organized by The Hedgehog Poetry Press UK. In the present collection, the poet speaks of his inward journey of personal discoveries and acquires importance as he steps out of the familiar. There are seventy-eight poems in the collection and every tenth poem uses ‘hesitancies’ so there are seven poems with the word. Interestingly Sethi does not shy away from allowing his personality to manifest itself through his poems. He holds within it engaging moments of personal research which adds an unusual word palette to his poems lending a rich varied reading experience. In “Plumbago” he writes “They had me hooked, unlike riddles in maths or what else I was macerating”. Like Robert Browning Sethi is interested in the human psyche and the inner crevices of the mind.“A Factory of Feelings” is a humongous lab of human feelings and their quirkiness.

“Poems are like/ progeny; after parturition, they are nursed/ and nurtured until they fasten their futurity”(“Cry For Clemency”). They help him make sense of his situation. Sethi wrestles for nuance by cricking words and woes. Some poems dip into his emotional deposits; others document the demotic. The poet attempts to arrest a moment of truth in an aesthetic manner. In short, Hesitancies is his engagement with existence, “selfdom is its document: linguaphiles decipher it” (“Postil”). Each poem in the collection is a little universe—the tone at times being confessional and uniquely self-deprecating. He chooses the short form to communicate to his readers. As the book progresses, the poet embarks upon a flight of discovery which leads towards maturity and self-awareness, “Interposing was my way/ of conversing/ in younger days,/ I now hear myself/ and the others./ Post every obsequy/ I conclude/ this isn’t for me”(“Overhauling”). His constructs of self, manhood, and that of the world around him expand until they blur into a new experience: “But when shadows reign over the room,/ his intonations play in my mind’s spool,/ introducing chasms, my incompletenesses to me./ That way, bantam editions are better./ They don’t activate an audit”(“Response”).

This incompleteness is germane to his social context and prompts him to communicate on his own terms using a vocabulary that is uniquely his. He is sensitive to the dangers of language yet fascinated by it. He employs language in all its possibilities. Each word is a continent with vast possibilities. An unusual word palette, brevity, and precision add another layer to the reading experience. His vision seeks to dissolve outward appurtenances to look for the essence of his short form. “Liniment causes the clumsiness” (“Chagrin”). Stitching memories of his parents, “We mustn’t disremember/ ministrations of another mentor, / you edified me.”(For ma); “Father, you want to hold/ the space you held. / But, is it my fault, / that your hands/ now need me?”(“On Father’s 69th Birthday”), childhood, old friends and new normal he puts together a metaphoric rite of passage to maturity as a poet where “Words are first indicators of inadequacy/ Kindness can never be unchaste/ Poetry inhales what we can’t” (“Postil”). His poetry draws wisdom from his extensive and virtuosic training of rhetorical power. There is no unnecessary romanticism but the buoyant grace of the short form and aphoristic style that Sethi adopts as a religion. It is often a tall order even for a widely published poet to overcome his consuming reverence for his art and initiate a private conversation with it on his own. Sethi in Hesitancies does that with grace and élan.

“Decryption from theological texts/ diminishes me. / For the most part/ this lifts my beat but during bouts/ of burdensomeness I inquire; Is/ there any force more persuasive/ than faith?” (“Momentariness”). The poet thus comes to a closure in his signature style combining power and precision in just the right amounts. Sethi transmutes poetry “of knowledge” into poetry “of power”. The delicacy of style with a contemporary playfulness of themes and exquisite word-play make Hesitancies a must-read. Hawakal Publishers has been consistently gifting the literary world rich volumes of poetry by notable poets. Hesitancies by Sanjeev Sethi is a unique addition to the world of contemporary English poetry.

Dr. Sutanuka Ghosh Roy is Associate Professor English in Tarakeswar Degree College, The University of Burdwan, WB, India. The titles of her books are Critical Inquiry: Text, Context, and Perspectives and Commentaries: Elucidating Poetry, Rassundari Dasi’s Amar Jiban: A Comprehensive Study. She is also a reviewer, a poet, and a critic.

 
 

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