BUILDING
BRIDGES
Book
Review by Dr. Shaleen Singh
=================================
*Building
Bridges, poems by Frank Joussen, ed. by- Avvari Showraiah.
Published by Avvari Showraiah,
Tiruvuru. 2008, ISBN 9788190670906,
Price-25/-
pages-61
Frank Joussen like Schopenhauer or Max Muller has a deep craving
for India and his poetry is
the testament of this reality. Having fallen in love with a country of varied
hues of culture, religion and tradition and the oldest civilization of the
world, the vision of Joussen is as large as vast as
the sky and as deep as the ocean. His is the poetry of the life, and its
multicultural and multi-dimensional approach which has an inherent and
incessant urge to unfold the enigma called Truth and the present collection Building
Bridges is an authoritative attempt in this direction.
The present collection Building bridges dedicated to the founder, the staff and
the children of IDEAS (Initiatives in Development, Empowerment and Awareness
Society) a non-profit voluntary organization based as Tiruvuru(South India). Actually the collected
is edited by Avvari Showraiah,
the all in all of IDEAS who has been working for the street and working
children for the past seventeen years and is a dedicated social worker. Only
the persons like Avvari who have a noble mission of
Social Service before them can do such a commendable work in this age of
growing competition and declining moral values. When our eyes are accustomed to
see wrong and ears are accustomed to lies and we have gone strayed in the
jungle of materialism, the light houses like Frank Joussen
and Avvari Showraiah will
definitely succeed in guiding the humanity at large.
The collection has
51 poems, mostly addressed to India and her glorious
background. Joussen is the votary of Mahatma Gandhi
and Mother Theresa who are the icon of Indian social reform. The poems of Joussen bespeak of global peace and brotherhood because his
prime concern is Man and his predicament. When he visits Gandhi Museum in Madurai, he recalls
Mahatma Gandhi and says:
All your life you fought
for
The freedom of
forgiveness
-------------------------------------
The worldwide waves of
Your
fasting and your speeches
And the elementary
spinning
Of the never-ending
wheel (51)
The poems like
‘Talking to Banyan Tree’, ‘Flying Back’, ‘Poverty Poem’ and ‘Building Bridges’
are the poems in which Frank’s thought and vision mingled with humour and irony are visible. The poem ‘Two Poets Standing
on the Grass’ is a fine example of compare and contrast between two poetic
genius; Tagore and Whitman. While the poem, ‘On the
eminent Death of Domestic worker’ gives a comparative analysis of the sun of a
rich fellow and a domestic worker.
Another poem
‘encouraging Beggars’ written on the three quotations from the south central
Indian Railways is full of irony and reflective quality. But poet’s deep love
for India is recurrent in
many poems: I will give/ So /Anniversary, there is/Good by India for now/ There’s
no country/ That’s so difficult/ To
stay in/And so hard to/ Say goodbye to/At the very same time (54)
Frank Joussen is vivacious German poet who has refreshing verbal
expression with an array of varied shapes and forms like the colours of India. It is a very
modest attempt of the poet to remind every Indian, the rich, glorious and
charming heritage of India. In fact, the poet
in the nosegay of these refreshing flowery poems has tried to after his deep
love and adoration to a great country. And to some extent the aroma of Indianness has glorified the poet also. The book is a must
read for the persons who are deeply influenced with western culture and have
forgotten their own glorious past and is also worth reading for the persons who
have deep love for this nation.
Shaleen Kumar Singh
M.A. (Eng.), LL.B., Ph.D.,
drshaleen111@yahoo.co.in, drshaleen999@gmail.com