Introduction to Love has Many Faces

Love has many faces is a refreshing set of poems fit to be read on a Sunday afternoon in your cane swing. If you are wondering what love and marriage could be like or want to fall back in love with your spouse, then you need to read the book you are holding in your hands. Or, if you happen to be a person with a penchant for following up on relationship-talk from everywhere, then too Love has many faces will engage and enchant you.

The 50 and odd poems in this collection are mostly about relationships, the everyday and a woman’s experience of these two. The poems on relationships are sweetly romantic and filial in nature. And the light-heartedness of all the poems makes one wonder if the age of irony in literary writing is indeed over. There is a sense of freedom sought out even within circumstances that are neither adventurous nor outdoors. The walls of the house, doors and windows open up and alert us to the many nuances of experience we may have missed in our mundane moods. The kitchen platform (visited numerous times in a day), the living room space, a child’s colourful drawings and addiction to cartoons and so on exude the warmth of happy smiles and contented hearts, in livid details that we have forgotten to notice. The joy of a household emerges like the whiff of the tea aroma that the poet makes in one of her poems; such is the intensity of observation and attention to detail. It is as if poetry is waiting to happen almost everywhere or is a way of life for the poet. Poetry, here, is thus, not a gaze adopted time and again to offer oneself the pleasure of a unique perspective but instead seems to occur in life even when one is busy and engaged, creeping into our thoughts and words as if it was inevitable.

The poems demand the sun and swing mainly because they are positive and free of irony. Irony, which otherwise, seems to mark the written word of our current times without respite is not to be seen in the poetry here, except perhaps in one or two poems. These few poems offer a break from the monotony of others and provide a balance to the collection. Love, longing, empathy and different aspects of relationships are each dealt with carefully and with an uplifting mood. The collection also goes against some beliefs about creativity in our times. The belief that one has to suffer, for instance, in order to create art is dismissed without a struggle. Instead, we see the everyday life of people in routine situations and their goings about narrated with love and respect. The suffering subaltern or the suffering poet may have finally exited!

Love inside of a marriage is well-brought out in the poems. The simple joys and complexities of a marriage are captured so beautifully that anyone still believing marriage to be drab compared to love outside of the institution, will be cured of it. Marriage is many things here: a battleground, a negotiating table and sweet companionship—possibly leading to the title—love has many faces (pronounced the same as phases).  Some of the poems remind me of Philip Larkin’s poems on marriage. The longing within a marriage point to a city, unmistakably an Indian one, where the need for a lovers’ intimate moments may be acknowledged (with some luck) but never a married couple’s. But the specific longings we see indicate a woman’s experience of love. That her love is markedly different from a man’s is asserted and portrayed subtly and truthfully. This different experience makes its way into almost all the poems, whether the poet writes in the voice of a lover, wife or mother. Thus, this collection needs to be seen as an example of women’s writing where the poet taps into experiences specific to her body, her dreams and desires, her spirituality and her life-experiences.    

The poem on the relationship with an aunt reminded me of the way in which relationships were the primary subject matter of women writers like Savitha Nagabhushana and Vaidehi in Kannada. The poem on Krishna invokes ancient imagery, yet gives me the impression that the poet is yet another gopi herself; a culturally endowed gift for many girls who grown up in India. Some poems explore the writing process in a creative manner, comparing and merging them with the flurry of household activities. Other poems cannot be clubbed under any theme and stand independently. I suggest the reader to savour the poems over a few days of slow reading and expect to feel rewarded. I welcome you to enjoy the many colours in this collection.  

-Sushumna Kannan

Centre for the Study of Culture and Society &

San Diego State University

The above is my introduction to Neelima Talwar's book of poems.