Beyond Borders, a collection of New Poems by an eminent poet, critic and veteran scholar, A.N. Dwivedi who is Presently Professor and Chairman, Dept of English, Taiz University at Al-Turbah, Republic of Yaman. The book should be considered as an important registry in Indian English Poetry as it has ‘a fairly large number of poems on the poet and his functions the intricate poetic process and the role of words, sound, sense and rhythm in the creation of poetry’. In an age of ever proliferating growth of both qualitative and pseudo poets, the poems dealing with such themes, will provide a more meaningful and insightful glance to those who have a craving to write an ideal poem. I remember another poetry collection of Vihang A. Naik titled Making A Poem that ‘shed a fascinating light upon the process and poet’s personal aesthetics.’ But Dwivedi’s Beyond Borders carries poems that articulate ‘the soul and of art’ in the effective communication/without getting bogged down/with doubts ‘n’ confusion’ reckons the ‘poets of today/who delve deep into allusion/take too difficult technique/to depict life’s profusion’ and make their ‘utterances’ ‘mostly chaotic ‘n’ hollow,/creating tense, arid situations/which we cannot follow.’ (6)
And yet he finds words as important as feelings that ‘enable us to converse/debate and discuss and deliberate issues of our concern and addresses them as the wealth rhetoricians/ the bane of mystics,/the pride of statesman,/ the prize of poets’. Dwivedi is chiefly a poet of social consciousness but the collection carries poems of various themes. ‘Remembering T. S. Eliot’, ‘In Memory of W.H. Auden’ and ‘Salutations to Kargil Martyrs’, are poems cum tributes. ‘Life’s Journey’, ‘Nature’s crop’, ‘A Blind Man’s Life’, ‘Life’s Support’, ‘What are We’, ‘Knowledge-hunting’ and ‘Life is Winding Stare’ are full of vitality and philosophy and ‘Rewa Roads’, ‘Panchayat Raj’ , ‘The City of lamps’ and last two poems ‘Scientist Vs. Poets’ and ‘Young Man ‘N’ Young Woman’ (Both in dialogue form) are realistic as well as humorous. The collection, as a whole, must be welcomed by critics and poets so that the senior poet may continue to ‘fulfill’ the ‘aesthetic purpose’ of ‘Rasa Nishpatti’ and remain a radiant life force shining alike a Northern Star.
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