The title of Shanta Acharya’s What Survives Is the Singing suggests a central difference between it and the other two books (Wing, by Matthew Francis, and The Martian’s Regress by J O Morgan). In them, general ideas arise by implication from particulars. In it, general ideas are the overt driving force. This approach limits the reader’s freedom of imagination and response. Its advantage is the sheer intensity of passion or acuteness of realization it can produce. One very strong poem is ‘Can You Hear Our Screams’, a haunting catalogue of femicide violence starting with the rape and murder … Continue Reading

You can link to my review of Imagine in The Manchester Review by clicking here

You can find my review of her Dreams That Spell the Light (a selection from which makes up the penultimate section of Imagine) by clicking here.

Shanta Acharya, Dreams That Spell the Light, Arc Publications, 72 pp, £7.99 paperback, £10.99 hardback.

Shanta Acharya was born and educated in India, gained a doctorate from Oxford and was a Visiting Scholar at Harvard. She has written a book on Emerson, three books on asset management, and five volumes of poetry. This new collection reflects both the breadth of cultural reference and the rather privileged perspective one might expect from such a background. At the same time, hers is very much a poetry of the heart. Written in a direct, vivid, approachable yet highly individual style, using uncomplicated syntax and … Continue Reading