The Treasure of Tears

R.P. Ghosh's collection of poems is a subtle, atmospheric and dignified late harvest. Ghosh's themes are many: the beauty of earth, river and sky; the loneliness and meditativeness of old age; the pain and joy of family relationships; the lasting vividness of erotic love. Nor does he shy away from larger social, political and even metaphysical argument when these are a necessary part of his subject. His idiom is a free English verse which is flexible enough in its register to encompass both the lofty and sublime and the quotidian and detailed. Ninth title to author's credit, The Treasure of Tears is mature work by a poet who has learnt to know his own mind, the world around him, and how to make each speak to the other through the medium of a finely controlled and carefully modulated poetic imagination.