Moon Child – Rushali Mukherjee – Review

Moon Child is the debut poetry collection written by a very young poet, Rushali Mukherjee. Still 18, the poet has compiled 100 poems in her first poetry collection. Not only poems, but the book also contains 100 sketches drawn by Rushali. So, it’s a poetry and sketches collection… not the first time we are seeing it but certainly a one of its kind because of the young author as well as her artistry in both the fields. Moon Child has very short poems, usually within 10 lines and sometimes merely two-three lines. However, a few poems are a little over twenty lines as well, within a page, however.

The poems are generally filled with a mixed set of emotions usually wavering between positive and negative and hanging somewhere in-between. On one page, you will the poet is happy and willing to continue and on another, you will just witness the slowly ‘just fading away’ attitude.

“I wish I knew
Why this universe wants to
Keep me alive
When I’m slowly
Just fading away”

Just the next page after this poem questioning the very essence of one’s existence, Rushali takes inspiration from the stars and wonderfully convey that though the stars do burn out at the end, before doing so, they do inspire people more than a million times to keep going. So, as a reader, I could not stick to one singular idea of emotion in this collection – nevertheless, the poems do oscillate between two poles… the positive and the negative.

She writes about the love that ‘comes in different forms’. She writes about a mother who is a synonym of patience. She writes about vows to show a father how much his daughter loves him… she writes about many things and seldom a thing might be left alone if one reads the collection thoroughly. However, the level of discourse or the ways these things are dealt with by the young poet might resonate differently to different readers.

Rushali writes about ‘tears’ that ‘wet’ her cheek and how do these teardrops remind her of someone’s forever existence with her. And, likewise, there are many poems that simply give away the idea of plurality – we all want someone to be around us but it cannot happen all the time. Some have the ability to draw these emotions in words and the same has been done by Rushali… accompanied by wonderful pencil or sketch arts that perfectly sum up the words or inspire someone to read the words if one goes by the picture first.

Rushali Mukherjee’s poetry collection, Moon Child, is a wonderful attempt by a young writer, no doubt. These poems are mostly reflections of the thoughts and emotions that the poet feels and thinks. However, the outcome – the poetry – might not be refined to all the readers. If you read and enjoy and move ahead, you will love these expressions. However, if you read and stop by to realise what you read and scrutinise the form and style, you might find someone who is yet learning to draw perfect caricatures of her emotions with her words. Rushali is a debutant and it might not be a problem for the readers… she has successfully, almost, covered her poetic freshness with her artistic sketches.

You can get a copy of the poetry collection from Amazon India by clicking the link given below:

Buy the poetry collection now – Click to buy from Amazon India

Review by Anand for Literature News