Book Review - The Mystic Inferno

Book Review - The Mystic Inferno

 by Faizul Khan Tanim

The first subliminal effect that I bumped into whilst reading this book was experiencing verses of a writer Obaidur Rahman who is both an ‘optimistically pessimist’ and again a ‘pessimistically optimist’. And he manages to strike a fine balance explaining his many earthly, cosmic or hallucinating situations where the glass is half full and it would have been better if it was totally full and sometimes he believes in the glass half empty with a sigh of relief that at least it’s not completely empty.

The fifty poems in this book also take me in to a wild ride of sea surfing and gives me loud kicks contemporary thoughts once intrigued by the chorus of a song by the American rock band Alice in Chains – Like the coldest winter chill, heaven beside you…hell within. The words of his poems will make you feel that there is emotional conflict within everyone and that these feelings are terrible, and you would like to replace them with happiness, but people around you are constantly frustrating you, pulling you down the dark morbid hole of prejudice, melancholy and death.

And his most confessional, conceptual yet very spiritual piece is Thrill Mesmeric and one must read this in order to feel that moment of upheaval which the writer felt and feels to convey. One can bask in these extremely rhythmic lines and you will feel that mesmerizing floating-drowning effect as you read:

So close but not personal
Straight ahead but diagonal
Perfectly rational yet paranormal
Minutely infinite yet strangely colossal.

Here’s to the distance, that’s within the reach
Celebrate the rule that inspires the breach
Sickening pleasures that poor the rich
Guess one time or another, we all got to scratch that itch…

The beauty of Obaidur’s poems is that there is no brainless ambiguity or any dense complexity. They are, regardless of their themes, very confessional, generates his perspective on life, world and the Universe, and according to the poet, most of which were written in the middle of the night. And since they were written around pre and post midnight, maybe they have this urgent tonality of mysticism and ‘sound of silence’ since I am guessing each time he finished, it was the moment of dawn and he would listen to or recollect memories of hearing the Fazr Azan.

And as one reads all the poems, he or she will feel that a lot of genres are living in his dreams, be it Paulo Coelho’s alchemy; the British psychedelia majoring in The Beatles and Pink Floyd; the early 90’s grunge revolution in the United States led by Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Sound Garden, or Rage Against The Machine and maybe because of the writer’s love for music, most of the poems sound very lyrical and they can be fantastic songs.

He said, “Poems like “Galactic”, “Communion” , “The Edge of Eternity”, “Cosmic Serenity” are about the connection with the Man and Universe and how great, grand , impressive, awesome and spectacular the Cosmos is and of course, how Man thrive to be at one with the whole Universe out of sheer respect. I write a lot on Astronomy as a science writer, so my love for Universe comes very naturally to me”.

He said more that “Poems like “Mystic Infinity”, “Aching Desperation” ,”The Rousing Imminence” , “Odepath”, “Choice Abundance”, “The Hour of the Owl”, “ The Mystic Rain”, “The Light”, “ The Cosmic Seraph”, “The Melting Obscurity”, “On the edge and after”, “The Pilgrimage”, “Revelation”, “Desire”, “ The Divine Frequency”, “Wish-craft & wish-spell”, “The Truth Eternal”, “The Blossoming of Faith”,  are mostly about my inner-spiritual quest. My efforts to find spirituality, strength, gallantry, honor and peace in my own self, within the great vicinity of this Universe”.

“Meanwhile, poems like “The Demise of Here-After”, “The Chair”, “Casualties of Now”, “Why” are about the present state of the world today. These are my thoughts on all these meaningless wars, political hypocrisy and the sufferings of common man”, Obaidur added.

The cover illustration of the book (the flaming heart with the blue background) was done by the writer. It was the very first painting that he did. He explains that on the cover, the symbolic representation of his name, reflects his interest for ancient cultures, their mythologies and his interest in symbols and their deeper meanings. Some of those symbols that he used are mostly from Alchemy, Buddhist, ancient Egyptian, Mayan, Aztec, Nordic, numerical symbols.

According to the writer, this book is available at Word n’ Pages, Jaatra Craft (Banani), Boi Bichitra (Gulshan-2-Rupayan Plaza Market), Zeenat Books (New Market), Book Worm, Sonargaon Hotel’s Kiosk, Bidya Bhaban (Bailey Road), PBS (Shantinagar) and few other places.

*This article was first published in The Independent's Weekend Magazine Friday August 31 2012 - http://www.theindependentdigital.com/index.php?opt=view&page=49&date=2012-08-31