Language rebels against its dissolution in Naveen Kishore’s ‘Ode to a Grieving Angel’

Naveen Kishore's latest poetry collection, "Ode to a Grieving Angel," delves into a world of rebellion against the dissolution of language. The collection is set on a foggy, barren landscape, where fallen angels, ghosts, and historical figures like Hamlet’s father, Macbeth, and Lear are depicted. The poet's grief-stricken world is a testament to the struggles of our contemporary age, marked by war, censorship, and state violence.

Kishore, an experienced theatre lighting designer and photographer, crafts a stage that reflects the disintegration of language, memory, and the poet's muse. The alphabet is portrayed as a cast of fugitives, while the writer's muse rages with a voice devoid of memory. Words are under duress, co-opted by the state, and the poet struggles to pen a eulogy amidst political horror.

Political imagery such as "khaki shadows," "jackboots on the march," "rivers of blood," and "an entire city in flames" permeate the middle of the collection. The poet's prose passage outlines his ars poetica, urging readers to subvert, conceal, and practice revolution daily. The poet-protagonist concludes by burying the letters of the alphabet in a coffin, highlighting the despair and urgency of the moment.

As the collection progresses, the poet turns his back on language, contemplating a lack of desire to express thoughts. The coda reveals the poet-protagonist cradling a fallen angel, one with a vivid dream and the other holding a shattered dream. This sums up the storm raging through the poem, with contradictions coexisting without synthesis. Kishore echoes Samuel Beckett's Vladimir, declaring that "nothing to be done" as Godot never arrives, and the angel has already fallen.