Book review: Rhapsody Road by Ravi Shankar Etteth

RHAPSODY ROAD Poems by Ravi Shankar Etteth, Om Books.

This slim volume of poetry is conclusive proof that the author,  who I`ve known since forever, is still one of the most consummate word-wielders that I have read in my long reading life.

Rhapsody Road is a slim anthology containing poetry of love, longing, celebration  and nostalgia; of regret and cynicism, of contemplation, wounding  and healing. The poems open themselves to the reader in deceptively easy fashion but very soon, the reader realises a second and third reading of the same poems reveal quite different meanings.  Basically, these are poems that the reader will revisit again and again, a gift that keeps on giving.

The central tenet to these poems is that not all love is redemption. Sample these lines….

Now everything is important/except what is important.

When the postman brings you my letter/which you will open with the heirloom paper knife/I gave you for your birthday ages ago/don`t be puzzled/The sheet is blank./I`ve nothing to say to you/it`s just that I thought of you.

Alongside every poem, veteran author/columnist/political cartoonist Etteth has created  photo illustrations with the help of AI, and they make a separately striking artwork by themselves. The poetry has also been set to music, accessed via a QR code on the back of the book.

This is clever harnessing of technology in the service of literature, indeed.

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