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Slices of soulful poetry —

Masum Billah is drawn to things confessional
The Mystic Inferno, a collection of forty-eight poems, reached me mysteriously. My first copy was either stolen or lost. However, I procured a second copy and devoured many of the poems. Il is difficult, really difficult sometimes to discover the hidden meaning of some of the poems. It is a common phenomenon with almost all the poems. The first poem of this collection, 'Mystic Infinity', shows that the poet wants to seek divine pleasure through closing his eyes and forgetting the pains, anxieties and sorrows of this modern age. I Ie wishes to immortalize this peace and tranquility of mind. I am sure the first poem will captivate the attention of any reader and get him or her into reading the other poems.
All the poems of the writer seem to be very confessional, personal in nature and written most probably in the middle of night. He has developed a very mystical theme in his poems, which might have happened consciously or unconsciously.
The poem "Thought Splinters" is about the magical power of writing and how the power of creative writing makes us more humane.
Poems like "Galactic", "Communion", "The Edge of Eternity" and "Cosmic Serenity" are about the connection between man and universe and how great, grand, impressive, awesome and spectacular the cosmos is and, of course, how man thrives to be at one with the whole universe out of sheer respect. The writer seems to have gathered much astronomical knowledge which has been reflected in many of his poems in this collection.
Poems like "Mystic Infinity", "Aching Desperation" ,"The Rousing Imminence" , "Odepath", "Choice Abundance", "The Hour of the Owl", " The Mystic Rain", "The Light", "The Cosmic Seraph", "The Melling Obscurity", "On the edge and after", "The Pilgrimage", "Revelation", "Desire", " The Divine Frequency", "Wish-craft & wish-spell", "The Truth Eternal", "The Blossoming of Faith", are mostly about the writer's inner-spiritual quest. His efforts to find spirituality, strength, gallantry, honor and peace in his own self, within the great vicinity of this universe, find their expression in this literary form.
Meaningless strife and war, political turmoil and hypocrisy, the sufferings of common men truly get reflected in such poems as "The Demise of Here-After", "The Chair", "Casualties of Now" and "Why".
The rest are more or less confessional, things that the poet goes through, his take on and understanding of life, struggles, ambitions, dreams, longing for positivity and efforts to better himself as an individual by fighting off all sorts of negativity. Poems like "Sick-Tranquil", "Thrill Mesmeric" and "Insomniac", besides their confessional nature, have some extensive word play compared to other poems. Obaidur Rahman has tried to intentionally make the poems rhythmic and hard. Here we must mention that he is determined to have poems that will rhyme and sound rhythmic, more like songs. The writer is a fan of music and his love for rhyme comes from all that is musical and lyrically magical.
Some contemporary global figures in various fields have already learnt, gone through and passed comments regarding this collection. Nancy Schevell managed lime to read a few of the poems and appreciated the message in the poems. Bill Gates, singersongwriter James Taylor, singer Annie Lennox , guitarists Eric Clapton and Joe Satriani have already got the copy of this book. Ms. Fiddy Henderson, personal assistant to JK Rowling of Harry Potter fame, also received copies. Very recently singer Norah Jones and British singer-songwriter David Gray appreciated the book.
Some of the poems called for repeated reading on my part because of their catchy titles and because of the piquant smell in them of the present ills of society. In the poem 'The pilgrimage' some lines really shake up thoughts. Think here of 'Times are filled with blunder/ some say, ignorance is bliss, wisdom is a curse/ and consciousness is a struck of thunder/but all shall fade away when the night falls / Behold and reborn, once you are in six feet under.' The poet seems to be very optimistic when he says, 'Out of the wrath of spell, I know the light will prevail/ And I'll rule my realm of wonders.”
The vanity, metropolitan snobbery, covetousness and extreme greed of present-day civilization have made the writer thoughtful. He warns those who vainly take pride in indulging these evils through the lines in 'Demise of Here-After’: Blindingly chasing after riches/Power, vice and lust/ If only they knew/All is but grave dust./ Really nothing will go with human dead body.” Even then, society is plagued with all sorts of vices and lust. These lines almost parallel the lines of Matthew Arnold's 'Dover Beach' of Mathew Arnold where he says, "Ah, love, let us be true to one another/for the world which seems to lie before us like a land of dreams, so various, so beautiful, so new/ hath really neither joy, nor love, nor certitude, nor peace , nor help for pain/ And here as we are on a darkling plain, confused with alarms of struggle and fight / where ignorant armies clash by night.”
In the poem, 'The Righteousness', Rahman says, 'I know life is one of trial and error/But when all hope is gone/ Faith slowly turns into terror.' Life is one of trial and error is very much universal. Again, the next two lines truly speak of the dark side of present conditions in the country and even in the global arena. When people find their hopes shattered, they turn into terrorists.
The cover illustration of the book (the flaming heart with a blue background) is symbolic. It shows the writer's interest in ancient cultures, their mythologies and interest in symbols and their deeper meanings.
Lovers of literature along with social thinkers and professionals will enjoy reading the poetry here. They can escape from the mischievous present and go looking for divine pleasure.
MASUM BILLAH IS PROGRAM MANAGER, BRAC EDUCATION PROGRAM, AND VICE-PRESIDENT, BANGLADESH ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION (BELTA). EMAIL: MMBILLAH2GOO@YAHOO.COM.