Title: ANOTHER VOYAGE  (Poems:1973-1983)
Description: ANOTHER VOYAGE is a collection of sixtytwo poems in its three sections: Book I - The First Symphony (twenty poems), Book II - The Corridor (twenty poems) and Book III - The Cosmic Dance (twentytwo poems). The poems are captivating with their lyrical grace and passionate intensity, designed in the temple structure of the poet's home state Odisha, the first book being the dance hall, the second the hall of ritual and the third the sanctum sanctorum and planned like Dante's Divine Comedy.

Excerpts:

MAKING A POEM

A poem
like a raft
carries the poet
to unknown depths.
It takes him to 
unknown shores
unseen summits.

The voyage 
more exciting
than the destination,
making a poem, in itself,
is a wonderful experience
as intimate and intense
as love making.

Book Review                     JOURNAL OF INDIAN WRITING IN ENGLISH; Vol.40 - No.1; Jan. 2012 / Page-84
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ANOTHER VOYAGE by Bipin Patsani; ISBN: 978-81-906393-5-4; PP.75; Wordsmith Publishers 
HOMECOMING by Bipin Patsani; ISBN: 978-81-906343-6-1; PP.71; W/smith Pub. (Guwahati)
                                                                                                                        Rs150/- each
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                                                                                                Reviewed by G. I. Sheriff

 At the very outset, Bipin Patsani provides light to those among the wise who constantly wonder aloud from the dark, as to why people who will not be published by ‘giants’; who will not be critically acclaimed by ‘high priests’; who will not be long-listed and short-listed by ‘people’ or ‘pundits’ for awards, and who will not be prescribed for study by those ‘teachers’ who ‘matter’, take the trouble of writing at all!

        A poem / Like a raft / Carries the Poet / To unknown depths. / It takes him to / Unknown shores / And unseen summits. // The voyage / More exciting / Than the destination, / Making a Poem, in itself, / Is a wonderful experience / As intimate and intense / As love making.
                                                                                
                                          (“Making a Poem”, from pg 1 of Another Voyage)

           And, can a poet be faulted if he or she feels like sharing such light with others; taking all the trouble that it takes to with press type to paper? 

         Indeed, many of the poems in this collection have in them the urge: of ‘coming together’, of ‘sharing’, of ‘creating’, of ‘feeling’, of ‘assuaging’…. /

            The strings of the lyre / Ache like the body / Of a lonesome woman, / Quivering in the recollection / Of some warm experience. // Won’t someone come / And smother caressing kisses / On her aching strings?     

                                                                                     (from “Eternal Longing”, pg.5 of Another Voyage)

           ‘The Nude In Sleep” is redolent of a period that, unlike our digitalised times, quietly facilitated the intellect to explore much, to celebrate much.

           On the warm bed of memory / Lulu sleeps nude / Love kissing her closing eyes. // The
blanket goes down. / The yarns caress her weakening thighs / Like hungry hands roaming for oyster. / Lulu smiles in her dream. / It rains and to her joy / Breeds tiny bubbles under her bosom. // The bubbles die. / What yet remains is the rhythm / Enchanting her dream.
                                                                                                                   (pg.6 of Another Voyage) 

The footnote to the poem reads:

 This poem was written in 1975 on seeing the nude under a blanket on the cover page of Sartre’s ‘Intimacy.’ Lulu is the heroine of the title story.  (pg.6 of Another Voyage)

Well and truly a happening of the bygone era.  

     How long will you close / The mouth of the volcano? / It will surge again / In a greater force /
And sweep across the whole valley.//How long will you reserve/And restrain the influx of life? / 
Would anyone say/ You had so fine a flood/ Deep within you, when you dried up? / When you dry, / Would anyone care to know / If you were pure? / …..

                                             (from “O Fountain”, pg.8 of Another Voyage)
    

   A charming call to shed stifling inhibitions; to put an end to prudery. Similarly, and assertively:

                    Be it on paper or on your lips / When I scribble poetry in nude /  am more natural and powerful. /                                                          
                                                                                             (from “Nudity”, pg. 12 of Another Voyage)

         “Shah Jahan’s Soliloquy” is a curious play of history and self assertion:

          … I want to be free, Caligula, / Freedom lurks behind…/ The marble walls of Taj Mahal. /
And I want to be free, / Free to be with her, / Free with what I stand for. / If truth be our common quest / And you Caligula looked for it above, / I dreamt to find it in my love.

                                                                 (from “Shah Jahan’s Soliloquy”, pg.45 of Another Voyage)
     
   “Shraban” and “Counter Shraban” are two quite unique reflections of the story of yore upon this day:

   Shraban has no option/ But to live for his parents/ And their overwhelming whims./ So to see for them, he walks on / Carrying them and the self-denying ethics / Of an imposing social system./ He doesn’t plunge in the river of life:/ He doesn’t dive into its depth,/ Since he cannot let his burden go./ How long can he be indifferent/ To things round and remain uninvolved/ In developments he sees taking place,/ Unaware thus of individual aspirations?/ How long can he escape unhurt/ By the evils of his age?/…

                                                                (from “Shraban”, pg.37 of Homecoming)   

     Be it catharsis or sport,/ The way in is the way out./… I don’t complain that I feel lonely/ When I am in a dark mood./ In fact, I communicate the other way,/ The way of involvement, I mean./ …

                                                          (from “Counter Shraban”, pg.38 of Homecoming)

    Pocketful of dreams/ And on the head/ The load of earthly relations,/ I walk absentminded,/ Split into multiple consciousness/ And the burden./ I count down my dreams miserly/ Lest I should miss one sometime/ Somewhere in the crowd of thoughts./…

                                                    (from “The Being In Awareness”, pg.36 of Homecoming) Of the essential burden of being!

  The two volumes of poetry, of a person who has been writing from the nineteen seventies (a different millennium, a different time) to now, a time that challenges our very humanness, are indeed very interesting. And a word for the publisher for the dedication and the artistry that made the books.