The men of verse

Somewhere in the middle of the title poem from his recently published poetry collection I Want A Poem Speaking Tiger the multihyphenate writer Jerry Pinto says ldquoI want a poem like an animal You should be able to eat it Or domesticate it You should be able to befriend it Or behead itrdquoRanjit Hoskote PicNancy AdajaniaIn another collection by another veteran Ranjit Hoskote who shares the same love for verse we are introduced to the narrator Hunchprose whom he names his book after Hunchprosemdasha hark back to Quasimodo the deformed bell ringer in Victor Hugorsquos The Hunchback of NotreDamemdashoffers a sharp defence for his poetry against the stronger and more ldquomurderousrdquo prose rivalsldquoCall me Hunchpraise I bend over my inkdrift wordsAnd when I spring back up I stingrdquoOne might see stark contrasts in what the two poets hope for their poetry to domdashwhere Pinto sees it as a source of nourishment and rage Hoskote draws attention to its underrated influence And yet therersquos very little difference The writers remind you that you mustnrsquot disregard the poem today or everHoskotersquos Hunchprose Penguin Hamish Hamilton is a rare treat that deftly moves from the quotidian observationsmdasha lsquorainbow neckrsquo pigeon tapping on the wrong side of a glass on a grey gloomy daymdashto drawing from legends and history to paint a vivid portrait of people and our dystopian times Our personal favourite is Sidi Mubarak Bombay 1820ndash1885 a prose poem which also opens his collectionSidi we learn is a Zanzibari slave who worked in 19thcentury Bombay only to return home after his ldquosethrdquo as a dying instruction demands that he be freed He goes on to become a guide for explorers but the smell and sights of Bombay continue to haunt himldquolsquoBombil surmai bangda rawasrsquoThe masalathick pungency of one fish after another after another would settle on my tongueMy neighbours must have thought I was chanting spellsrdquoPinto on the other hand is a storyteller even in rhyme and meter and thatrsquos the gift of his prose and versemdashit just keeps giving He dips into the personal the familial and the ordinariness of daily life to write his verse We loved Today My Mother is in the Audience hidden within the lines is a charming story of the writerrsquos late mum blushing with pride even in her absence when ldquoyou the audience clap or laughrdquo ldquoIt embarrasses me that smile her clear uninflected enjoyment of any small successrdquo he writes Or take Will You Miss Me a love letter to a former lover inspired from Elizabeth Barrett Browningrsquos gentle sonnet How do I love theerdquo We must not forget though to mention the line that most amused us ldquoYou have some cheek I will miss that cheekrdquo Isnrsquot that what we most remember about those heart breakersWhat I Want A Poem by Jerry Pinto Speaking TigerFor Rs 299Where amazoninWhat Hunchprose by Ranjit Hoskote Penguin Hamish HamiltonFor Rs 499Where amazonin