Pradeep Nambiaar, New Delhi
Cactus Blooms written by Dr Mini John Alani is an engrossing collection of lyrically intense and insightful poems.
Each of the resonant poems invites the readers to immerse and lose themselves in a world where resilience meets beauty, much like the desert flowers that inspired its title.
As you turn its pages you can see the poet masterfully weaving themes of survival, love, and the enigma of existence into a tapestry that is both profound and poignant. The title poem as well as poems like “Fallen Tree” and “Houseplant” set the tone for the collection, emphasizing the strength and tenacity required to thrive in adverse circumstances. Through eloquent ecofeminist metaphors like the houseplant pining in the “indoor gloom”, the bonsai with its confined existence–“the captive soul in the ceramic pot.. scantily watered… ruthlessly trimmed”–and the lone cactus in the rock garden, “the resilient beauty in the arid wilderness” cherishing her “lavender dream” the poet deftly equates nature with women and invites the readers to explore the terrain of sexual politics.
While “Coupling Shadows” unravels the subtle complexities of human relationships, “Blackholes”, a powerful poem about the scars left by psychic wounds juxtaposes the cosmic and terrestrial images, adding a universal resonance to the intensely personal narrative. “Sunset Years” is another moving piece that draws our attention to the succourless days in the evening of life, “old wounds still hurting/ An oyster without shell”.
The poem “Ocean” is a voyage into the “azure expanse” of the human mind, with hidden icebergs, “Scylla and Charybdis lurking in the liquid deeps.” The poem ends with a warning that an “onward rush may leave you but an eternal wreck/ A jetsam of loathing or a hapless flotsam.” The observations “chromosomes whisper your destiny’s song/ In the dance of genes, the script unfolds” and the resonant phrase “Harmony is but chemical symphony” in the poem “Chemical Symphony” encapsulate the insightful idea that our very existence is the result of a delicate balance of biochemical elements.
The poet makes effective use of concrete images which enhance the beauty and poignancy of the verses. The exceptionally unsettling and perturbing portrayal of the human journey through the “chequered vale of life and death” depicted in the poem “Carcinoma”, where we find the last glimpse of a falling star twinkling faintly in the lashless eyes, is highly evocative.
Images like “the old fingermark on the creaky door” and “the mirror with a crack running across its heart” (“Memory House”) are steeped in nostalgia, making the house a repository of undying memories. The gruesome imagery in “Abu Ghraib”, “Still A Savage” and “Doomsday” portray a dark, sombre and macabre world of disturbing realities.
The poetic odyssey culminates in “Thou Art That,” with a profound Eliotian revelation which makes the seeker serenely retreat into “the stillness of the heart where the mystical lotus breaks into a bloom”, marking the end of a prolonged quest.
Cactus Blooms is an open invitation to pause and step into a lyrical world where emotions and thoughts intertwine in exquisite harmony. The extended metaphors and metaphysical explorations in this illuminating anthology reveal the poet’s depth of perception that transcends the mundane and ordinary.
Dr Mini John Alani–author, poet, lyricist and translator–is the former Head of the Department of English, Alphonsa College, Pala. She is the translator of History Liberated: The Sree Chithra Saga written by Princess Aswathi Thirunal Gouri Lakshmi Bayi.
Cactus Blooms is published by Writers International Edition, Athens, Greece (2024).
