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Poetry is one of the oldest and most imaginative of the arts, and one literary exponent is making great strides in the medium by launching his first collection on online retail giant Amazon.
Tajammul Kothari released An Ode To Life in April, which features 42 pages of his finest work. As the title suggests, the collection highlights the different stages that one goes through in human life. Its official synopsis styles itself as: “Focusing on both the emotional and metaphysical phases that a person goes through on the beautiful journey called life, from birth until the end of existence.”
Tajammul, of Indian descent, was born and brought up in Bahrain, and took an interest in poetry from a young age.
He said: “Poetry always fascinated me since I was a child, as I used to read a lot of poetry books. Back then, I always had a desire to write at least one poem in my lifetime. So, to write a collection of them is nothing short of a miracle.”
Whilst forging his career in management for a local construction company, Tajammul decided to start his own blog a couple of years ago, where he wrote articles on issues that affect society. It was only when he saw his reader base grow that he felt an urge to experiment with different forms of writing.
He explained: “I naturally progressed into poetry. I started with a simple poem and got a good response from my friends. This encouraged me to concentrate my efforts on writing more poetry and eventually it became my passion.
“Once this passion was kindled inside me, I truly aspired to become a good poet and then the inspiration just came from within.”
Tajammul believes the key to being a successful writer of poems is to read a great deal, not just of poetry but also different types of media such as fiction, articles, history and news. His greatest inspirations are Romantic English poet William Blake and American Emily Dickinson.
Originally, he never envisioned An Ode To Life as a collection. In fact, he wrote a vast body of poems that were powerful individually, but it was only when he read back over them that he realised that the poems fitted wonderfully well with a theme that he had in mind, and hence the compilation was born.
He said: “The journey was amazingly unexpected as I never thought I would write a book, but it just formed perfectly in my mind and on the page.
“The beauty of poetry is that there is no right or wrong interpretation, and each individual reader can take something different away from any one poem. So while the journey of life is a theme, I’m not making any specific statements about it.
“My primary focus is wanting the reader to connect with the poems in An Ode To Life. Since poetry is an uncommon art form, or at least has dwindled as a format in recent years, I’m hoping to influence more people to discover its treasures.
“As individuals, we constantly go through different emotions or scenarios that influence our lives, be it success, memories, love, heartbreak, pain or pleasure. In this book, I have tried my best to bring to light these different phases so that the reader can relate to them.”
Tajammul continues to write in his spare time and is already planning to release more works in future, having been inspired by the positive response to An Ode To Life.
However, in his own words, he ‘loves to experiment’, so his next book could be anything from short stories to a novel, or even another collection of poems.
An Ode To Life is available on Amazon now at www.amazon.com/dp/1521003580 and Tajammul plans to publish the book locally in the near future.
Excerpts from the book
For Love is There…
Love defines every wonder
A feeling of grand splendor
Everywhere you go it cast its glance
It is the world’s natural essence
It binds humanity and frees captivity
Starts a journey of happiness
And ends the palate of sorrow
Determines the fate and diminishes the hate
Elevates the lonely heart and deflates the pain
For love is there
In petals of flowers swaying in the air
In the smell of musk spreading everywhere
In fireflies sparkling its light
In a rainbow elevating the sky
For love is there
In waterfalls gushing the hills with its force
In steams of rivers forging with its flow
In butterflies, amazing in its creative guise
In tilting starts, grazing the wide expanse
For love is there
In the stretch of mountains capped in snow
In the whistling of birds in the early dawn
In specks of rain after the sweltering heat
In that special someone who skips your heart beat
For love is there, everywhere you go
So capture it and do not ever let it go.
Life of a Butterfly
Shriveled body of a butterfly
Fractured wings and unable to fly
No more a wonder to the eyes
Constrained by the vicissitudes of time
But one day you were the dazzle of all eyes
Your wings were so colorful and bright
Spreading your beauty and roaring high
Nothing could ever stop you
No one could hold you back
From making your mark far and wide
Those were the days of youth filled with delight
But now those times are gone by
Just reminiscing the past with tearful eyes
But believing that one day you will be free
Till then be patient and thankful for your life.
