The Molested Clay (Poems)

Provoking the reader, Ms. Tanni Bose tickles with her title: Can the inanimate clay be molested? Does it connote that the male crudity conceives Eves to be clayish and so are subject to man’s whims and fancies? Or, is it that the Creator molested the clay by fashioning Eve in the Garden of Eden out of Adam’s rib? Or, is it like reading the blank page? Not at all. ‘Clay’ is a symbol of immense possibilities of creations and re-creations, as poets are capable of. The forbidden apple of the Garden of Eden feeds the author’s fancy into the first poem in the anthology—‘Forbidden Nectar’. Impatiently confused, Ms. Tanni defines ‘nectar’ as the assemblage of trust, togetherness, friendship and loyalty. In the paradox of this mundane being, “Even the demons had a claim to it”. After all, the ‘forbiddenness’ is an unwelcome, irrevocable legacy of the Garden. Such existential pointlessness, though unsavory, is realistic. Such subtle realisms in the The Molested Clay are pleasant surprises to us, the readers. See, for instance, “Love was draped in bones” (‘Bony Love’)—a powerful visual image. The poetic courage to meet Lucifer, to enumerate the miracles “when the hand seizes” and to adorn the perfect ‘YOU’ with so many immortal attributes is simply admirable. May God bless the poetess with such courage’s in the days to come and may the readers be bestowed with the aesthetic courage to be inebriated by such felicities. The Molested Clay is another milestone. – Jose K.C. , Senior Lecturer,Samtse College of Education, Thimphu, Bhutan