"Annapurna Poems" by Yuyutsu RD Sharma

Review by Alain English

 

Poet and translator Yuyutsu RD Sharma has put together this collection to honour the Annapurna mountain region in Nepal from where is from - a region he can no longer access due to social and political upheaval that has cut him off from the area.  His poetry speaks of the power and beauty of the mountains, in reverence to a "silence that connects our breath to the souls of the gods."

 

It is obvious from the start that this is not an intellectual exercise, but a journey of a man with a sensual feeling and deep connection with the mountains and it's people.

 

A number of poems highlight the harshness of the high atmosphere and the endurance of the natives it surrounds - 'Christ's Cross' and 'River Morning' are but two examples.  The poems are laced with inventive and poignant turns of phrase such as:

 

"A lonely woman

Waits for a stranger to come

 

And burst

The ice between her thighs" ('A Lonely Brook')

 

As well as

 

'Frozen fury of blood melted

And gone to make a little soft song of life' ('Ghandrung: Water Play')

 

The closing poem 'Silence' is very moving, speaking of a man weeping for a home that is forever lost to him.

 

Check out more of Yuyutsu's poetry at http://yuyutsurdsharma.blogspot.co.uk/