Amrita Pritam’s poems carry a strong lyric presence which carry a strong Eastern sensibility. In many ways, these poems were beyond her time; written in a country that was still ever present in the romantic tradition of the 18 th century. She is often credited with giving Indian poetry a contemporary voice. Her writing is plainly spoken and written in a devotional style. The language is almost a plea for seeking and understanding the mysteries she is working through. Although she rose to prominence commenting on the pervading political issues of her time as well as issues of women’s rights in the nation, the poems from this collection are far more personal holding a strong sense of discovery.

My Soul Became A Yogi And My Body Became Ashes is an example where Pritam directly addresses the ideas of oneness. The body is gone. It is reduced to the essence of a God that is addressed here and can be seen not as a physical entity but as an omnipresent characterization of everything that surrounds us. This is a poem which confronts her spirituality in a way that is forthright and honest. The achievement is to become one with God which in turn would be to become one with everything. O God is a poem that brilliantly characterizes Pritam’s sense of puzzlement. Much of it is rooted in traditional work that was to be expected of an Indian housewife at the time. However, Pritam takes this act of spinning cloth and spins it into a moment of transcendence; one that does not deliver clarity per se but does hint at a greater entity which mystifies her and in turn the reader. The Bird Of Time again is a poem that carries within it a sense of wonder. The question of where an entity comes or goes is one that comes up often in her work and may be hinting again at an acknowledgement of this all pervading entity. The bird of time resists superstition. This is particularly interesting as it seems as if Pritam is making a comment on the ways in which the powerful spiritual ideas often get masked in service of ritual and offerings. In place of God here is now a maternal figure. One can see the two as the same, again rooted in a strong sense of devotion on behalf of the speaker.

There are some unique features of Punjabi that readily present themselves in these poems. For example, the language is one without punctuation. This means that there is a greater emphasis on enjambment and how it serves to bring out the cadence of the language. What is also interesting is Pritam’s added punctuation namely in the form of ellipses almost as ornaments to compensate for the lack of punctation inherent to the language. One can interpret these additions as serving the larger rhetoric structure of the work. Namely, the ellipses for example carry within them a sense of continued bewildered thought. It is almost as if, as in many of her poems, the reader is taken through a stream of consciousness on behalf of the speaker where personal revelations are being offered. Indeed, the spirit of these poems lies an Eastern sensibility which carries within it mystery and uncertainty.

-Kyle Singh