Mandira reviews Misna Chanu’s poetry, a sensitive and humane exploration of suffering, love, and hope, exclusively for Different Truths.
Misna Chanu is a committed poet. Her brilliant verses are not just soul-touching whispers but deep, sensitive outpourings from her heart. Readers will certainly be enthralled reading her humane poems with personified love that is not about sensuality but beyond the mundane. Her mind speaks of illuminated truths with dignity, and she pens looking at her society, sometimes in deep trouble. Hers is the voice of muffled melodies. Her poems are the call of her soul.
According to the sensitive poet, with extraordinary expressions, the voices of the infirm, women, orphans, suffering humanity, and the disillusioned are mute, muffled are just as silent whispers, and the verses are primarily dedicated to them. A humanitarian, she writes, For the unsung heroes of the nation,
I do not mean only those names/ History has ever recorded with pride/And as legendary stories,
But all those souls / Who have fought for this freedom
The poems such as “I Don’t Want Another Son of God to be Crucified” and “Maybe It’s Easier to Take Side” are just a few examples of her humane and sensitive soul. She writes with her tears and gentle words these significant poems.
The poet’s mother seems to have inspired her as she pens a remarkable poem, “Mother’s Voice.” She pens in a blissful note, a simple but profound note.
In mother's tongue /you speak to me /words of love/
both silence and song /have found peace/ Inside my soul. (Mothers Voice.)
In her poem,titled“How Long” she pens the following amazing lines:
How long do the petals have to bleed
Because of the thorns?
In her concluding poem, “Maybe This is Not a Goodbye,” she wonders and writes in a poignant tone. whether she will be recognised by the scars on her soul or whether the moon will still be shining or inflict more pain. How very true! Writes the poet in the preface the following beautiful lines
I do not dream of a paradise
But I dream of a world
Where no garden is devoid of flowers
And no heart is devoid of love!
No wonder her verses are strained with the silent cries of the unborn poems as we readers wait for more from her. Indeed, as she pens, her dreams are too tender to sustain in the sun. She can be compared to pearls who sleep in silence despite storms and tides. Metaphors she uses brilliantly.
But her poems may turn into a powerful voice when her concern for tomorrow’s children, in poems such as “Darlings of the Earth” and “The Children of the Lost World,” exemplifies a distinct, powerful voice. She talks about how loving children may be orphans because of none but our fault. The poet’s heart bleeds for those whose lives have been lost due to war and violence, whose mothers cry because their sons are killed, whose daughters are raped, and those whose husbands are killed too, in this pathetic state of mankind.
In conclusion, I must write that the poems are cathartic outpourings of a tender and deeply hurt heart, which she brings in a brilliant poetic form.
Misna Chanu is a bilingual poet, author, translator, editor, artist, humanitarian, a postgraduate in Botany, born in Assam, India. Since childhood, she has been writing poetry in her mother tongue (Manipuri); later she started writing poetry and short stories in English. She has published three poetry books, one short storybook for children, and edited six poetry books. Her poems have been translated into 15 languages and published in journals, anthologies, and magazines worldwide.
Cover picture sourced by the reviewer
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