‘You are the smudge on my soul.
You are my guilty pleasure.’
writes Vibha Malhotra in her debut collection of prose poetry, aptly called ‘Loveflakes’. A collection of 53 prose poems written with gay abandon yet prudent restraint, Loveflakes explores love in its various forms and shenanigans. The collection is fierce and tame, absolute and unfinished, calm and chaos, all at once.
Each poem is a story in itself, trying to piece together and understand love. It glorifies love in one poem only to question its endurance in the next. Vibha wraps each poem delicately in layers of conflicting emotions. Starting with the star-spangled ‘Lovemaking’, full of hope, the book meanders through ravines of longing, loss, fear, and pain, to reach a crescendo with ‘Happy Ending’, which makes you question whether this is indeed a happy collection of love poems or if there is an underlying silent acceptance of the tragedy of love. Thus, Loveflakes concludes with a declaration that ‘there never was a happy ending to this.’
What makes the book even more beautiful is the artwork accompanying the poems. They add depth and meaning to the poems and draw the reader deeper into the chaos of love. The book is surreal despite talking about a love that is real and modern. It makes one relive moments of love, get misty eyed with memories of what could have been, give words to one’s own fears and doubts and leaves one with a lingering longing for times lost.
‘The moments we had,
And the ones we lost,
Define our bond
And our bond is beautiful, if not perfect’
What really sets the book apart is how accessible it is for all kinds of readers. Even if you are not a poetry reader, you will find yourself flowing freely with the verses, reading and re-reading some lines, and losing yourself to them. Vibha’s language is bountiful without being pretentious. It coveys so much while leaving a lot unsaid. The reason these poems stay with the readers for a long time is because of their ability to tug at your heartstrings. You will find yourself and your experiences somewhere on these pages.
And what better way to describe the book than Vibha’s own words: ‘I have never been more in love. I have never been more free.’
The writer is a voracious reader and a whimsical writer, her short stories have been published in various Anthologies such as ‘Defiant Dreams’, ‘When they Spoke’, ‘Mock Stock’ and ‘Quarrel’, ‘Sanskaran’, and ‘Unmasked’. She also blogs about books on @bookhippo.ec.