By: Mohsin Abrar ️
After the scintillating success of her previously published and highly acclaimed work comprising of A Trellis Of Escatasy (poetry), Lilies Of Valley ( Book Of Essays), The Gypsy Trail, (Novel about an Army wife), History On My Plate ( Lip smacking book of cusines), which hit her Best Author award ,Rippling Moonbeams ( Poetry), which earned her the Chandigarh Sahitya Akademi award for best book of the year , A Passionate Affairs with Trees, ( poetry), Yeh Na thee Hamari
Qismat( Book Of Ghazals), Lily Swarn came up with grande dame of Poetry collections of floral fantasy, ” The Divine Dialect Of Flowers“. In this lucid oeuvre, with exotic phrases, each poem in each section portends fragrance and sweet sentimentality. The language is very rich , the adjectives very powerful and the metaphors layered. Brilliant imagery is Lily’s forte and once the reader flips through the crispy pages of the book he is mesmerised with the soothing succour of the verses.The book starts with the poem ‘ Kumudini ( of lilies) her namesake flower and the poetess is aware and attentive to the sensitive human emotions of pain and grief. She shares her poetically conceived ideas with her readers with her groovy and artistic ink !
The blossom that take a regal stance
Willing you
to embrace your own power
Reminding you
that renewal is round the corner
The end of one thing
heralds the beginning of another
I was equally enchanted and drenched by ‘ Kashmir , “The Beauteous one” .Being a denizen of this vale the pert lines of the poem filched my heart and sluice gates of my mind flung open . The verses are a kind of Pandora , with lexis full of love , audacity, respect and trust for unanimous synchronisation and enlivening sensitive, innocent souls going through their daily lives.Succinct and sublime , sensuous and satirical ,the soul stirring verses lampoon social construct and everyday phenomena .Lily Swarn’s musical trills rang
” The peaches and cream complexion
With icy glares thrown in
The girl everyone ogled
But was caught between those two
The scent of apple blossoms
The heart of almond green
Cherry laden tresses
Scattered in walnut dreams
Are you feeling well dear girl
With tulips in your arms ?
You stop near the chinars
You whisper to the willows
You weep in your sleeves
Of woolen embroidered phirans
It’s never easy to be charming
The evil eye hounds you
It chases you till Shalimar
It casts its venomous stare
You hide your agony
In shikaras full of fears .
Ghulam Mahjoor, legendary and famous poet of Kashmir’s lusty outpourings resound and reverberate in these verses
“Walo ha bagwano
Neendre ki shaan pyada kar
Phalan Gul gath Karan bulbul
thithey samahan pyada kar .”
“Come ye gardener
Let us create magnificence of new spring
A spring in which the roses will bloom
The nightingale will sing “
Here is another poem titled “ Love Riding Bare Back”. The Poetess surfaces here with all her effervescence and bubbly vivacity. Lily portrays love in crepe de chine form with her refined Verses !
A worm inside a rose
Hidden in a fragrant Bower
A red velvet beetle camouflaged
In the petrichor of winter rains
Strains of ” killing me softly”…
Drumming on window panes of
A tear soggy heart
Love riding bare back stallions
Wild mustangs without reins
Black maned, mad eyed
Raking dead leaves to fertilize
Barren fields of vintage allure
Infused aroma from English tea
Tantalizing yearnings for one more cup
Another heartache to live life for .
Love and affection are heavy and intense emotions. When this energy is present in your life , it constructs your vision and elevates your manifestations. It is only this sugary balsam of love that is capable of dousing flames of inane anguish and hatred. It is pivotal and a fulcrum where her writing almost stands thematic.There is no place for fissiparous forces and that is the hallmark and salient feature of Lily’s Poetry .
And what an exquisite, awe inspiring, eye opening journey of flowers the poetess has taken us on. Besides being delectable, it is highly eclectic .Reading this collection of 121 collected poems of beauteous creation , I could feel a turgid flow of blood run down my neck under the lace collar and I am finally spell bound. Bewitched!.
Like the rains in mansoons the emotions evoked from these poems rain upon you and drench you in lyrical muse . This corpus of literature is rich in lyrical cadence and sends the reader into raptures of joy . Highly recommended book to the aficionados and the poetry lovers ..
Mohsin Abrar has done PG from Kashmir University and can be mailed at [email protected]
