Book of Poem: Lullabies

Poetess: Lang Leav

Publication: ‎ Simon & Schuster (17 September 2013)

Pages: 176

Price: Click the link

Introduction:

Born in 1980, Lang Leav is an international best selling poet of New Zealand. Apart from Lullabies, a unique collection of poems, her other collections are similarly praiseworthy Love and Misadventure (2013), Memories (2015), Sea of Strangers (2018).

Devotion

He is more to me

than I.

I love him more

than I can bear.

So much at times

I wish to die,

so I can end this

on a high. ( Lullabies)

Words like tattered memories ooze out from the deep delve of heart and the soul confronts the sudden metamorphosis.

Like her other anthology, “Love and Misadventure” this book of poetry-carnival is divided into three chapters.

The first chapter is Duet where brief but extraordinarily captivating poems take you to your rendezvous in the wings of imagination. “When” is a beautiful poem.

“Tsunamis”, woven sex, love, passion- the trio in a unique celebration.

“…all warnings lost in an instant

to the enormity of what I felt.”

” Patience”, “Passing Time”,” Sad things”, ” Loving You”, ” And/ Or”  are some poems that keep me mesmerizing in my contemplation.

“Clocks” is a rhyme whereas “Mementos” is a fragmented memory. “Message in a Bottle” is just wonderful.

“Second Chances” I just love to read again.

Chapter-2 the “Interlude” is acquainted with more enchanting poems like, “Nostalgia”, “The Professor”, “The Dinner Guest”,  “Vania”.

“The Dinner Guest” is a poem that binges on the classic celebration of a wine party.

“Vania” is a beautiful pictogram where Laughter peels from the heart pumping the adrenaline,

In “Dumplings” impatient hands work slowly dipping the finger in egg yolk.

Chapter-3, Finale introduces more heart touching poems like Living a Lie, “Soundtracks”, “A Winter Song”, “ Change of Heart” etc.

Pretext

Our love—a dead star

to the world, it burns brightly—

But it died long ago.

What can be more simple yet so impressive than this?

Style:

Poetry is not language; poetry is feeling. And Lang Leav’s style of composition is a glaring example of it. There is no turgid expression or rambling thought. No vague verbose marks its value in portentous exuberance. Rather an eloquent lyricism wafts freely in simple canvas. Everything is so picturesque that touches the core like a pensive melody.

Alvina’s Verdict:

Pick the book and you will not repent…that is what I can say. I’m not a passionate reader of poems, as sometimes it seemed that poems are heaps of unpredictable vocabulary or tongue twister. But Lang Leav breaks my prejudice. Nothing can touch my core in this way as she does with her feather strokes.

Reasons

I wish I knew why he left. What his reasons were. Why he changed his mind.

For all these years, I have turned it over in my head—all the possibilities

—yet none of them makes any sense.

And then I think, perhaps it was because he never loved me. But that makes the

the least sense of all.