A Life in Poetry or a Livewire of Poetry?
M Sridhar
VARAVARA RAO: A LIFE IN POETRY by Edited and translated from the original Telugu by N. Venugopal & Meena Kandasamy Penguin Random House, Gurugram, 2023, 199 pp., INR 499.00
December 2023, volume 47, No 12

Varavara Rao: A Life in Poetry—Is it a life in Poetry or A Livewire of Poetry? ‘Livewire is Better than a Poet’ is the title of an early poem and ‘Birds like my urge for freedom/ Waiting on the power line’ are lines from another poem titled ‘Companion’. The image of birds perched on a barbed wire aptly captures the theme of this wonderful volume of Varavara Rao’s poetry.

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