Making A Poem | Vihang A. Naik | Book Review

Making a PoemTHEME: 4/5
POEMS: 3.5/5
ENTERTAINMENT QUOTIENT: 3.5/5

My Musings

I cannot say that I am a huge fan of poetry, and that is because when I compare the ratio of my poetry reads to the total books that I read in a given year, the result is usually a very dismal one.

Poetry is a genre whose appeal (for me) lies in the fact that it is seldom read, and therefore, whenever I do find myself with a poetry book in hand, I am always excited. Poetry to me means a break from the monotony or a venture into a far-off terrain, and it is with the same feeling of adventurous enthusiasm that I picked up Vihang Naik’s Making a Poem. To know my thoughts on this book, do continue reading.

Readability, Quality, Styling

The overall appeal of Making a Poem is quite impressive. The officious-looking cover creates a powerful image in the mind of the reader. The quality of the paper is extremely good. Font size, font style and other styling elements are well done too. The blurb is crisp and makes the book look promising.

What to expect?

Making a Poem is an unusual collection. Unlike most other poetry collections that I read, this is written on a unique theme but more about that in the following paragraph. The book is divided into 5 sections – Are You Looking for That Poet?, A Poet as a Young Man, Making a Poem, A Poem Comes Alive, and A Poet. There are 25 short poems in this collection.

The unique theme

The unique selling point of this book is its theme. The book is a collection of poems on poetry. All the poems are written about either a poet or a poem.

Overall, the book tells us that poems and poetry are a tricky thing. Poems come to the poet when he has a thousand different things on his mind and yet when he sits with a pen and paper, blocking all the distractions out, brainstorming for hours altogether, the poem remains elusive.

My favourites

My personal favourite amongst the lot was the one titled “A Poem”. In a subtle way, it lays bare the becoming and unbecoming of a poet. It is a poem which aptly describes the process that goes into making a poem. Yet it does so in a blatant way. There are no sugar-coated words or sweet nothings which talk about the magical realism of the entire activity. No. Instead, it is an unembellished and brazen poem which comes straight from the heart.

“The Absent Poem” is yet another poem that left me wanting for more. It tells us how elusive and whimsical a poem can be. It comes to the poet one moment and before he might find a paper to scribble it, it’s gone.

Entertainment quotient

The parameters for deciding whether a poetry collection is entertaining or not is completely different from those of a regular novel. It is very difficult to rate a poetry collection in terms of its entertainment quotient.

I personally believe if a poetry collection is interesting, profound and uncommon, it should be termed as entertaining. Hence, keeping this thumb rule in mind, I can safely vouch for Making a Poem as an entertaining read.

Pick the book if

Pick up Making a Poem if you are looking for something strikingly unusual in your reading. You may also choose to pick the book if you want to add diversity to your poetry reading. The book is highly recommended to those who want to understand and appreciate the process of poetry writing.

Skip the book if

Skip the book if poetry doesn’t excite you much. If you are a poetry enthusiast but are looking for a collection on something more mainstream like love, loss, and emotions etc., then too, it will be better for you to skip the book.

Can’t wait to read it? Buy your copy of Making a Poem from the link below.

Amazon

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