VOYAGES Volume I (Dlx. Ed.): A Collection of Poetry

Voyages Volume 1 is a collection of easy to follow poetry. Debjeet Mukherjee has written this book with the intention to write poetry for people who have the notion that not everyone can understand poetry. There is a couple of lines written at the end of each piece to help the readers understand the essence of the lines above. The poet has written about various topics: love, friendship, betrayal, voyage, death, etc.

There’s a lot to miss about growing older: strength, hair, elasticity. But a collection of poems by a bright young author will make you miss something a little less noticeable – the way the young look at the world. Voyages by Debjeet Mukherjee, an 18 year old writer, is a collection of poetry arranged in the most unusual manner. He arranges the poems by age, nothing new, but in a Benjamin Button like twist, the ages go backwards. The collection starts with an inviting preface that encourages all, not just the elite or cultured, to experience the poetry of life. This transitions nicely into the poems themselves. Here, we find another added touch: small quotations at the end of each poem designed to carry “a message of what the preceding lines were all about.” Mukherjee takes this approach not because he deems his poems too complex for the average reader, but as a way to help readers learn to dilute the figurative language of poetry in general. And these poems are soaking in figurative language. Worn out topics such as love, friendship, and spirituality feel fresh when enlivened with Mukherjee’s metaphors, couplets, and symbols. The one flaw in the collection is more due to editing than writing. It only takes a few sentences of the preface to notice some minor typos and some formatting issues move the margins from one page to the next. But these small mistakes should not discourage potential readers. A highlight of the collection is “Prayers Alive in Hope.” The poem opens with a suppressed sense of rage as a “Syrian boy” prays “to the Lord to keep families safe, Not in this world, perhaps somewhere else!” Lines like these transport the reader. They allow us to see the world from a different perspective; from a background other than our own. The voyage that Mukherjee take readers on ends in a place of hope- that special kind that perhaps only the young can truly see.

Frankly speaking, I have not read/reviewed poem book in the past, not in English or not even in my mother tongue Gujarati. During Diwali vacation, I received this book from Debjeet Mukherji in my mailbox. I checked the blurb and 1-2 poems and thought of giving a try. I started reading it during a long train journey and surprisingly I was able to finish it within 2-3 hours. As the name suggests, "Voyages Volume I - A Collection of Poetry" is a collection of poems, each written at a different time in Debjeet life (I am assuming it) with a different thought. It has poem related love, relationship, friendship, inspiration, society and what not. Wordings of each poem are simple but meaningful. Not at a single point, you will feel that Debjeet is flaunting about his vocabulary. Poem topics are selected so nicely that for everyone at least few poems feel /touch on a personal front as if written for that individual. Another good part is a short quotation given at the end of each poem which gives the crux of the poem. I liked many of these quotations. Few even made to my Twitter and Instagram timeline as well. My personal favorite quotes are 1. “Lovely is the shape of the heart in cards Because the real heart has more to bear than fantasy” 2. “To take care of your loved ones is not easy. But who said it would be easy keeping a promise!” Cover design/selection is also proper for the type of book. Just like poems, cover shows us slow serene and deep mind; and our navigation through a voyage of life. Many of the poems are based on harsh reality which shows us the real face of the world. And most of the poems are realistic, very few are imaginative. I would like to applaud Debjeet to write so many meaningful poems at such a young age.