Blending Voices
Rohini Hensman
SEVEN LEAVES, ONE AUTUMN: POEMS BY SEVEN CONTEMPORARY POETS by Sukrita Paul Kumar and Savita Singh Rajkamal Prakashan, 2013, 160 pp., 195
May 2013, volume 37, No 5

Seven Leaves, One Autumn: the very title is poetic, evoking the vivid shades of yellow, orange and red through which autumn leaves pass as they turn from green to brown. This collection brings together the work of seven award-winning women poets: Zohra Saed from Afghanistan, Julie Boden from Britain, Clara Janes from Spain, Kishwar Naheed from Pakistan, Ute Margaret Saine from the USA, and the two editors, Savita Singh and Sukrita Paul Kumar, both from India.

The editors explain in ‘a few words’ at the beginning that ‘Having known each other’s works and with an acute awareness of the difference in style, content and perspective, we decided we needed to be together in the same volume. What prompts us to do this? Is it the gender affinity that transcends cultural specificity? Or, is it a shared aesthetics or vision? Our poems, we thought speak to each other effortlessly and put together, they are likely to create a harmonious chorus of varied notes…while there is a “seeking” through a range of experiences presented, there is also a quiet resistance built into these voices, the resistance to any kind of dominance or exploitation. What is shared is a desire to create new meanings and fresh premises for human existence, particularly for the female gender.’

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