Jaydeep Sarangi’s Review of Winged Reason

Jaydeep Sarangi’s Review

Winged Reason is K. V. Dominic’s  maiden book of free verse consisting of thirty nine poems which  is the fruit of  his five years of poetic  experience. KV Dominic is wedded to things literary. This simple self-effacing artist of international repute has created a brand of poetry from the backwaters of tranquil Kerala on the international literary map through his maiden volume of poems.

Dominic’s poems are veritable gallery of thoughts and experience. The major theme of K. V. Dominic’s poetry is the eternal bond between Man, Nature and God. Though baptized a Christian, he is primarily an Indian, and he is aware of his duty as a poet to instill Indian values to  his  readers and also propagate these noble values to the rest of the world. He is sensitive to things around him:

Let my mind soar high

on the wings of the Muses

and visit the places

where my body

fails to reach.

Had I the wings of a mallard

I could fly to the States,

shake the hand of Obama,

and thank my American sisters and brothers.

(‘A Blissful Voyage’)

In “Author’s Preface” Dominic claims, “I believe in the concept of jeevatma and paramatma (individual soul and universal soul) and that all living beings are part of paramatma or God. Again I believe in the Indian concept of Aham Brahmasmi (I am the God). Advaita seems to me more reasonable and acceptable than Dvaita. Thus I find the eternal affinity between Man, Nature and God. Man is not given liberty to kill other beings nor is he allowed to uproot plants and trees for his luxuries. The Creator has given man permission to use plants just for his survival. That is the law of Nature. No animal kills others except for food. Man needs only plants for his sustenance.”His philosophy of life is  reflected in several of  his poems like  “A Sheep’s Wail,” “Haves and Have-nots,” “I am Just a Mango Tree,” “My Teenage Hobby,” “Ammini’s Lament,” “Ammini’s Demise,” “Om,” and “How I Became a Vegetarian,”

Dominic’s poems are happening poems where Politics, terrorism, communalism, corruption and exploitation by political parties and religious fundamentalism become the subject matter. “A Nightmare,” “Anand’s Lot,” “Beauty,” “Tsunami Camps,” “Gayatri’s Solitude,” “Helen and her World,” “International Women’s Day,” “Lal Salaam to Labourers,” “Laxmi’s Plea,” “Rahul’s World,” “Vrinda,” “What a Birth!,” “Cry of my Child,” “Indian Democracy,” “Solar Eclipse,” and “In the Name of God” are special for topical references. Since we are born into a language, our view of reality and the values that we have are a product of the cultural background and social environment that have formed us. “A Blissful Voyage” is apt enough to assume metaphoric height.

A poet is a poet by reason of his invention, by his ability to express his feeling for life. His heart emerges out of the desire to share, to communicate.  His poems “Nature’s bounties,” “Harvest Feast,” “Cuckoo Singing,” “Onam,” ‘Long Live E. K. Nayanar,’ and “Sleepless Nights” are rich harvest of varied images. Dominic’s poem  ‘Sleepless Nights’ reminds us Bibhu Padhi’s “ A Room of One’s own” which  records with the physiognomy of details how poetry creates a room or a space for the poet:

But I’m sure, these days, the room

looks back in its sleep, waits for

my return, Which prayer for the future

shall revive it from its sleep,

its feeling of a cold absence?

(Stories of the Night by Padhi)

I believe this pure spontaneity governs our creative utterances, and the source, the origin of it can be explored through the images, metaphors and symbols that Dominic makes use of in his poetry.

Dr. Jaydeep Sarangi, (English Critic, Poet, Short Story Writer, Interviewer), Kolkata, India.