Written by Appreciating art, in any form, is like peering into a mirror and seeing one’s own self in it. In Lum Shaiza’s debut poetry book Things that Grow on Us, a lot of ‘the self’ is seen as you read. A coming of age poems and verses, Things that Grow on Us is an array of emotions weaved into words. Love, the raison d’être of all feelings, age and youth, relationship and attachment, remembrance and the immortalizing of life forms the foundations of these 101 delectable poems.
Written in free verse, Things that Grow on Us is portioned into three segments— Age Matters, Sweet Sorrow and Dear Life. Cherry on top, these passionate poems comes with aesthetic illustrations by the poet herself and an epilogue.
But I know sadder still
is to be a leaf that if it falls off,
no one would blink an eye.
Spring would still be spring,
without the one leaf that quietly
left the others.
Age Matters
Like a tree that blossoms, the first chapter, consisting of 25 poems, celebrates the agility of life that alters with age. In one of the poems The Rush Of Growing Up Shaiza writes, “Life is a sequence of eras ending.” Shaiza emphasises on the importance of feeling regardless of age. There is nobility is feeling every feeling at any age ….”because loving is beautiful and real, even at sixteen” (Too Young to be Real).
Knowing you is like a season
of cherry blossom,
you are all I can see.
Sweet Sorrow
Like a tree that grows dull, the second chapter, the largest of the segments with 42 poems, exudes the emotions of falling in love, falling out of love, the almost lover, the lover and the crush. But all in all it expresses the idea of love as a human feeling that is simple yet complicated. The ideal love is no love at all because love is a fragment of emotions—imperfect emotions. Like Shaiza pens down in Lilies and Cactus, this segment is sweet but sorrowful…but he liked lilies so the cactus trimmed her thorns. Never showing how tender a cactus is inside.
To regret is to have had choices
To wither is to have been young
To die is to have lived
To be forgotten is to have been known.
To hurt is to know love.
Dear Life
Like a tree that ages and shed its leaves, the last segment of 34 poems takes on the uncertainty of life. The most personal of the segments, Shaiza laments on the frailty of human life, the fear of losing loved ones and the vastness of sorrow yet finding consolation in all of them. At the same time the poet also celebrates life, life that is fleeting but a life full of memories that would carry forward the living… there is grace in the fall, in the dust. Heaven is’nt above us. It is where things grow, let things grow on us.
There are books that make you feel. Lum Shaiza’s debut work is one. The pleasant feeling that this book gives as you read on is priceless. It makes autumn all the more pleasant and warm. You could feel the warmth that poetry gives with the turn of each page. This is indeed an autumn book. Pick this book up to feel the autumn in you; read this book to revel in the variety of emotions that life gives; take time and absorb the aesthetics of the written words; and when you finish the book, you’ll want to look forward to many more works from this passionate original poet.
(Published by Penthrill, 2023; pages 132; INR 400)
