KATHMANDU, MAY 02
Poet and editor Itisha Giri has come out with her poetry collection - An Archive. The book was launched amidst an event held in the Capital in the late evening of April 30.
An Archive is a collection of 37 poems - they reflect the intrinsic and extrinsic traits of the poet. As per Giri, the book is a literary expression of her interaction with different social and political dynamics in her life. The poems in An Archive are accompanied by Giri's rendition of the Devanagari alphabets and minimalistic line art.
A review speech by Sarita Tiwari commenced the event that also featured poetry recitations and book signing. Tiwari, who is a poet herself, expressed her joy in getting to read such intricately intense poems. She found the poems "experimental'' and called them an "embodiment of freshness".
Tiwari shared that it was difficult for her to immerse in the poems due to language barriers as the poet has used sophisticated words. She suggested releasing a Nepali-translated version of the book for the Nepal-reading population.
Anagha Neelakantan, writer and editor, talked about boundaries and how the poems have pushed past comfort in An Archive.
"I found most of the poems constantly testing the limits of boundaries. They explore the boundaries - between memory and present reality, THT between one person and another, between life and death, between objects and the people who use them, make them, and own them. And some of these poems take you right to the edge of these boundaries," she said.
Giri's recitation of poems, filled with humour, philosophies, and aestheticism, followed the review speeches.
Some of the poems she recited at the event were Me Too, Off Limits, On My Wedding Day, The Language, and Put Out The Fire.
The poet also informed that the book has no particular target audience and is for anyone interested in poetry.
An Archive is published by Safu Publishing House and Quixote's Cove: the bookshop. - Prakriti Sharma
A version of this article appears in the print on May 03, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
