Coming-of-Age Poems

Lubna Shibu

Book Review

Title: Into the Wandering Multiverse

Author: Lubna Shibu

Publisher: Book Leaf, 2024

Pages: 23

Poetry serves as a profound medium for self-reflection. It offers a canvas where emotions, thoughts, and experiences are distilled into words. Writing poetry is a dive into the depths of one’s consciousness, exploring facets of the poet’s identity and feelings that are often left unspoken. Poets are introverts by nature, I think. Poetry is their way of encountering other people.

I was reading Lubna Shibu’s debut anthology of poems while I had a substitution period in a section of grade eleven today at school. One student asked me if she could have a look at the book as I was moving around ensuring discipline while the students were engaged in their regular academic tasks. I gave her the book telling her that the author was a former student in this very classroom just a few years back. I watched the student reading a few poems with some amusement. Then I asked her, “What do you think of the poems that you read so far?” Her instant response: “Is the poet an introvert?”

Isn’t every poet an introvert? Isn’t every good poem an expression of the inner turmoil of a person who has no other way of letting out her intense feelings? A poem is both a mirror and a map, revealing who we are while leading us toward self-discovery. This is just what Lubna Shibu’s poems do.

Lubna is a young student doing her final year BSc in applied psychology at Chinmaya Vishwa Vidyapeeth University in Kochi.  The poems in this slim volume describe her experiences of growing up as an individual in a particular ambience. The blurb describes the poems as a portrayal of a woman’s life in different phases: from school to university, childhood traumas and adulthood thoughts.

Love, the longing for it, is the dominant theme of the poems. In the words of the poet, “love is so strong, even universe comes no close / It will always shine bright…” An unloved young person will always feel insecure and helpless. That helplessness, especially before certain alien forces at school and in family relations, is all too obvious in the initial poems. The poet grapples with a legion of personal conflicts as she grows up from a schoolgirl to an adult woman playing diverse roles.

However, when I asked Lubna about introversion, her answer was: “I am someone who is very outspoken, loves to socialise, and spends time pleasing people, but I usually don’t like talking about myself, my traumas or my flaws. I usually shut people off when I have certain setbacks in my life or when I’m at my lowest.”

The poems in this collection all sound quite personal. When I point it out, Lubna says, “Yes, they do stem from my personal experiences from childhood onwards. There were some tough periods in my life back then when I felt I couldn’t talk about things happening in my family and my life. When I started my writing journey, it felt as though I was free. I could express myself freely. I felt as though I was relieving some tension that built up over the years, tension that had built up over the years from suppressing my feelings.”

This collection of 21 short poems can be classified as coming-of-age poetry, written by a young woman who is still in the process of self-discovery. She has a long way to go and time will mature her into a writer with greater depth, I’m sure.

In my personal conversation with her, Lubna told me that she was quite versatile as a child. She could paint and do many other things. But constant comparisons with others put an end to all that. “This book is a call to my old self,” she says, “the real me, and to all those people like me to push themselves to do what they love without worrying about what other people think.”

Lubna is completing her graduation in applied psychology. She has completed her internship at the renowned National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore. She informs me that she is also active in sports and games. She plays football and throwball, and takes part in athletics. Her painting is back too with a lot of abstract art to show. Poetry has liberated her from the invisible shackles of her childhood.

Having traced a young girl’s life from childhood through adolescence to youth including its lust [“An ocean of love, between my legs / As he sucked it in…” (‘Lust’)], this slender volume of 21 poems ends with a question: ‘Is there a point?’ The last poem is a contemplation about life’s purpose. Student, wife, mother… and then old age when “The woman feels like a sage.”

As I hinted earlier, the poems reveal much longing but the longings are yet to acquire depth. I’m sure this young poet will discover her profundity as she matures into that “sage” of her last poem. 

 

The book is available on Amazon.