First Breath by R Kumar: a review

Poetry has my heart. I try writing them and I try to read them too and that's when R Kumar’s First breath was offered to me with such a beautiful cover, I couldn't refuse. A lovely cover had the promise of a lifetime in it and I happily picked up the book for reading.

According to the cover- Not all the  time,  you are  at  place  is  made  for you.  You  have  to  find yours  by yourself.  Everyone  is born  with  their  unique  personality  and  ability.  A little  spark  is  needed  to  ignite  a  fire  of  passion  in you. Passion  is  the  only  thing  you  have,  to  make your  identity  known.  Just  emphasize  on  the  passion and  work,  you  will  get  sure  result.  Power  of  passion is  ultimate. In  this  collection,  some  poems  will  touch your  heart,  while  some  will  fill  your  breath.  Some are  clear  like  crystal,  while  some  are  hazy  like smoke.  But  by  the  end,  I  hope  that  you  will  get  the spark for  the  fire,  you are  in  search  for.

That is exactly what is written on the cover and I copy it word by word. Barring the grammatical errors, I went ahead to read the book. A very small one with only a few poems in it, I could finish it in less than an hour. That is the best part about the book. Another thing which I really liked about the book is the fact that the book is pure and unadulterated. The feelings that the author has, is mentioned wonderfully in the book.

Now, coming to the poems itself. I am at a loss of words. Certain poems are written in a very conversational manner. While that is one way which is currently in trend when writing poetry, the words used are very amateurish. While dealing with sensitive topics, while I understand the need of writing in a simple language, I feel that writing sense matters more.

Certain poems didn't make any sense to me. More like nonsensical verse. They didn't rhyme (not that it had to) but were forced to rhyme. Certain words (and I know I am using certain a lot of times but then, for the lack of a better word) felt misplaced and forcefully used to somehow rhyme. Poetry is an universal language. But here, I was forced to read it in an accent or pronunciation that the writer must've used while penning it down, which doesn't account to good poetry.

Were a few poems, poems or were they songs? I wouldn't ever know. That's because I don't understand the usage of 'hmm’ in a poem or the overuse of 'Hey Girl’ while penning one down. I tried my best and trust me when I say this, to connect to the write-up but the errors that caught my eye throughout the book (as an instance, writing 'decesion’ instead of 'decision’ as a title of a poem), caught the grammar Nazi inside me by surprise. The poems that were about family could only make sense to me from afar.

This collection is perfect for a specific type of people (read: yesteryear youth) who would like to read nonsensical verse (maybe after a heartbreak? And I'm so sorry for stereotyping) and not for the mass. And that's I guess all I can say about the book without going deep in it. Urging the author to read more poetry books and then writing it, I wouldn't really rate this one.