For the Hope of Spring

The collection, titled For the Hope of Spring: hybrid poems, published by Hawakal Publishers, Kolkata, India, is Shamayita Sen's first collection of poems. Like all memories, it smells of old life, chipped wallpaper and burnt wood. The poems have been neatly compartmentalized into: On Dissent; Grief and Other People; Love, Healing, etc., each section adhering to a particular dominant emotion and theme. The collection speaks of daily life, longings and idle musings on human existence, the lives we come across everyday, their personal sorrows and political sufferings. Some poems are inspired by real life experiences and Shamayita says she shall be ever appreciative of her friends and colleagues for allowing her to commemorate those as universal human emotions. The collection also houses a generous amount of such deeper emotions as love, hope and belonging. One's cultural and gender identities are crucial to living their busy urban lives-the poems could be a relief read or a shock therapy aiding one's realization of the same. The images are painstakingly collected through cold Delhi metro rides and Kolkata's warmth to classroom discussions and newspaper clippings. Dream images and the human subconscious also play a pertinent role in the collection.