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 Writers of Pakistani origin dabbling in fiction are budding of late and have managed to cast a spell on the younger readers. However, poetry as a culture, a basis for belief has not taken root here as it has done in the west, largely because poets of that maturity are relatively few and perhaps unable to exert that sort of influence.
Title: 50 POEMS: 30 Selected 20 New
Author: Zulfikar Ghose
Publisher: Oxford University Press, Pakistan (March, 2010)
Price: PKR. 250
Pages: 112 pages, Paperback
ISBN: 978-0-19-547574-6 (for sale in South Asia only)
In such a landscape, when the literary scene is thirsting for veteran poets, Zulfiqar Ghose, a poet of infinite experience and exposure, re-enters the realm and delivers his “50 POEMS: 30 Selected 20 Newâ€. A virtual fiesta of poems spanning five decades, this collection brings out Ghose’s unwavering stance but a gradual metamorphosis in poetic style. Where some poems reflect the variety and vitality of his experience and manifest an adventurous streak, others depict a gloomy, almost sordid approach. The poet, however, is constant in one aspect: he never lets the reader catch a breath, so gripping and alive is the verse that the poems leap out of the page and force you to build the scene using the mind’s eye. Littered with vivid metaphors, Ghose’s analogies are breath-taking, where an aerial view of a river is referred to as, 'the country’s dangerous cobra glitter’; one is deeply entangled in the poet’s captivating mesh. Most of the poems are painful, but incite the reader to curiously carry on almost in sadistic perversion delving into the poet’s past and almost deriving pleasure from his agony. But these poems usually end with a splash of relief like deliverance, a dip into the pool on a hot day.
To say that these poems are a reflection of the life and culture of Pakistani and Indian cities would be limiting their girth and labeling this exhilarating poet’s sincere approach with prefixed tags. Instead, these poems are a painful recollection of motley emotions, analogies, juxtapositions, alive with alliteration and pain. In Ghose’s disrespect and callousness lies his candor and deeply personal love: a love of human relation, of his motherland, of days of yore, of opportunities forgone and ultimately of untainted love as the be-all and the end-all. But this very love is expressed in an acidic, daring disregard to all that is conventional and limiting, like religious beliefs and man-made customs: “Grandfather, the landmarks are falling, which way will you turn now? Islam, Islam, that’s all you cared for, stubborn as a child, while I had gone westward, begun to eat pork.â€Â
Irony is also an element that does not seem to escape this poet when at times one can hear his distant wry chuckle resonating in most of this verse. Though there is symmetry in verse and emotions are wrapped in irony and ruthlessness, there are times when Ghose tries too hard to teeter away from the commonplace, such as the banality of history or glib talk of banishment from paradise i.e. one’s native habitat. Also there is an undertone of condescension towards those who do not confine to poetic form and with gay abandon surrender themselves to free verse. In a nutshell, Ghose belongs to that league of poets who may enjoy the stature of the Eliot of the Subcontinent, with his lofty themes and beautiful expression, but beautiful in a mean, caustic way that is pivotal here. At times as light as a balloon and often as ominously weighty as a loaded coffin, these poems are overall a scintillating interplay between the conformist and the rebel residing in the poet. 
Reviewed by Aamna Latif
Aamna Latif is a PR consultant and writes on arts and literature for various publications.
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