Shining Shadow Poetry: a review of Where the Shadow Falls by Raja Chakraborty

By Gopal Lahiri

Where the Shadow Falls
Author: Raja Chakraborty
Hawakal Publishers Private Limited, Kolkata/ New Delhi, INR-400/- ISBN:978-93-91431-88-4

Poetry often becomes a primary mode of crossing, a way of seeking others that also links back to the spaces opening inside. Words become the only way of attaining a truer identity, a mode of being. In his latest collection of poems, Where the Shadow Falls Raja Chakraborty draws a shadowy landscape that nourishes intimacy and fosters understanding, that human connections are powerful and enduring. They are a form of a linkage, a way of reaching out. His voice is clear, exacting, and precise.

In this impressive collection, there are eighty-six poems and the book is divided into two sections, ‘Where the Shadow Falls’ and ‘Asphalt Dreams.’ These poems pour out in a torrent, in a rush of longings as if the poet breaks through a wall of stillness and alters the depths of sensitivity into the true shades of poetic art.

Raja Chakraborty has a writing style of his own. Language in this collection may represent, among other consonances, the inner workings, and adaptation as the word becomes bridge, a juncture, a span of connection. His conscious understanding of the thought process transforms usual into something out of the ordinary. He is indeed a poet of crossings and thresholds, of portal to the other side.

In the editorial note, Somudranil Sarkar, points out, ‘Memories, longings, stories and even existence tread on lines and patterns, which forms the essence of Raja Chakraborty’s Where the Shadow Falls.’

Nicanor Parra reminds us that modern poetry needs to be immersed in life stripping the lyric down to its core, and tells the truth at all costs. He always mentions, ‘You have to improve on the blank page.’

There is something subtle yet untamed markings in Raja Chakraborty’s unsentimental poems. He is not seduced by sadness but overwhelmed by nostalgia and longings. His poetry generalises without being bland, condenses without being narrow, and philosophises without being apoetical.

I write my mind
My solitude

Words find space
In indulgent pages

Do not look for poetry
In these lines

You’ll find instead
Flesh, blood, sweat
And a teardrop

(Song of Solitude)

What astounds me about Raja Chakraborty’s poems are how they capture both the sense of isolation and deep connection that mark our everyday lives during moments of hesitancies. We perhaps cannot fathom the full mystery of existence. We cannot live fully soulful lives. All viewpoints are incomplete, all efforts inadequate.

There is something glowing and pure -- a radiant clarity, a shining stillness at the edge of his lyrics. It is as if the poet needs to look back with equanimity his own experience. The words themselves seem distilled in shadows and come from a great inner distance. At times, his poems create a zone of silence around them.

flowing river
rooted to its banks
ancient water carrying ripples
now here, now gone

each ripple a new wave
each wave a forgotten ride.

(forever and gone)

There are poems in this collection that tremble with human presence. Such poems have a dynamic simplicity that rivets our attention. They have the power to move us. One of my favourite poems memorializes a tender, unspoken moment of connection between father and son.

Standing in a void, in the crowded
Emptiness of aimless meandering
Shadows, I could not cry

Instead I saw you smiling in
The fire, forever emboldened.

(Baba)

The poet writes poetry with a sharp awareness of being himself and simultaneously, someone or something else. His short lyrics are austere and beautiful and invariably swell on the pages. ‘a poem/ is the last time you/ stopped/ and/ turned around/ did not speak a single word. (possibly).’

A poem must be more than its surface message, however discerning, however wise. And there is that sense of sharing and compassion that moves through then at those moments or when you are writing a poem. The following poem is filled with wonder and strangeness, a dizzying sense of the quest.

Every time I look into your eyes
I see Eden

In a salubrious bloom

Of promises, ripe and ready to fall.

(Eden)

In the following poem which is otherwise good, there is a possibility of the enhancement of the texture which we notice in Elizabeth Bishop’s line, ‘hung five old pieces of fish-line’ (The Fish). In the present case, one can argue that the poet can easily say ‘the last sea shell’ instead of ‘Sea shells’ and by dealing with the particular, a poet can develop the texture. And such texture is vital to all poetry and that this makes the poem an experience, not representing a thing like ‘Sea shells,’ not a mere statement.

As I collected
Sea shells,
Your dreams inside

Memories waiting
To be diamonds
Stones after all

(Fragile)

Raja Chakraborty’s free verse is marked by rhythms, sharp lines, and word plays. He stresses on rhythms that are lively and emotionally redolent.

But what I know now is
War’s game adults play
And peace, its abused cousin

and there is a liquid fire
in a dove’s soft eyes speaking
of a revolution
only hunger can ignite

(Hunger)

Poetry often asks us just to be direct and simple. There is a radiant piece below. ‘Just, it only takes just/A few simple lines/ to love and live’ (Just).

Some of the poems in this collection speak to the past in one way or another. The poet is a close observer with a romantic sensibility, an eager, even fervent eye, and a long wistful gaze. ‘Like the leaves of a maple/finding new ways to love.’ (maple tree).

I have forgotten how
you smell

have forgotten the velvet
kiss of your skin
on my eyes

all I see is winter

(the waltz)

Raja Chakraborty’s poetry collection Where the Shadow Falls conveys a rare artistry, some essential silence, and some expanding darkness. The poet touches on themes of longing, humanity, love and grief with great skill and purpose.

The cover design is artistic. This book stands out from the pack and surely, the poetry lovers want to keep this beautiful book in their shelves at the earliest.

Gopal Lahiri is a bilingual poet, critic, editor, writer and translator with 29 books published, including eight solo/jointly edited books. His poetry and prose are published across various anthologies globally. His poems are translated in 16 languages. His book reviews have been published in Indian Literature of Sahitya Akademi, The Statesman, The Millennium Post, Muse India, Scroll.in, Different Truths, Kitaab (Singapore), Setu (US) online journals and many others. He has been nominated for Pushcart Prize for poetry in 2021, He has received Setu Excellence award in poetry. His latest collection of poems Alleys are Filled with Future Alphabets. has received Pan Asian Ukiyoto awards.