Sonal Singh On Sonal's Table
The book is an immersive experience.
Mr B has a voice that is unique. It speaks of his years of experience at sea (literally, not metaphorically) as a seasoned Master Mariner. His love for the sea, salt, waves, oceanic folklore, shanties, songs… it’s clear in his verses, which are full of vivid imagery. The poems are lyrical in feel, and to several of them; I caught myself humming.
Written in free-verse (rhymed/unrhymed) some are sailing stories, narrated through the years from one sailor to another. The poems are also chronicles of experiences, losses, loves, sights, adventures, longing, yearning… everything that makes a sailor’s life interesting and yet profoundly lonely.
Mr B’s words create a cinematic experience for the reader. The only way I can describe it is via verses of my own.
As I turned your pages, aloud I read,
crooning the songs you spun,
salt on my skin, sun in my hair,
Your verses bright as the horizon’s run.
Waves rollicked and frothed below the sky,
red where the evening came apart;
I held your book and drifted far
while the sea rocked gently at my heart.
A balmy breeze of memory blew
of distant shores your heart longed for at sea;
and somewhere within your wandering,
I felt that longing stir within me.
I remember, a few years back, asking Mr B, “When will you publish a book of poetry?”
He’d replied, “I have 49 poems. The day I have 50, I’ll publish the book. I feel a book should at least have 50 poems.”
I was happy to note, this book has 52 beautiful poems. My favourites are – Come Back to You, The Ballad of the Seaman’s Woes, STS, The Mermaid and the Sailor, Unless… (deeply evocative, this one), and A Caribbean Mother’s Song (I love the classic song this is based on – My Bonnie lies ‘oer the ocean).
Check this book out if you too love poetry that is honest and real.
