The Keepsake: Poems of Longing

By Nayanika Dey

"​This is a poetess I admire so much. Her poetry is uniquely hers. Her love for peace and her ability to depict effectively the pain of death and the joy of life, define her existential depth of knowledge of society. After going through a good number of her poems I come to the conclusion that she is a gem yet to be discovered. Her style and diction are apt to the various themes she treats. She writes fluently and reaches the heart of her subject matter easily.

Nayanika Dey is a Humanist poetess and dwells mostly on the affairs of the human person and society. She concerns herself with drawing attention to both her inner thoughts as well as the happenings in the external world that shape society. For example her writings about peace also mean depicting suffering and the amelioration of the situation perpetuating the pain in the larger society. Peace only can be seen if the disrupting element is removed. She is able to traverse this road in her poetry, capturing peace, and violence and even fear of death playing amongst these themes with the ultimate triumph of producing her chosen subject matter.

Nayanika’s poetry is generally complex and sometimes difficult because she perceives a sophisticated world challenging her own sophistication which she gracefully brings to bear on her writings. A typical Nayanika stanza, like the second stanza in The Woebegone Bench, thus:

“Our stories are covered and graved below its tapered cabriole shins,
The drunk air filling the lancet arches,

And quatrefoils of dissolved faces,
Forging in flames of the bygone ages.
The cresting rail and spindles,

Are now draped in gossamer cobwebs,
While its apron homes the lost sighs and pain,
Namelessly and latently as they rain.”,

tells volumes of the sophistication of the poet. However the pleasure in patiently digging deep to understand the poet and unraveling her thought and essence is highly rewarding. The conclusion I can draw is that Nayanika’s work can only come from a great spirit of a person residing in her adorable young body.

-Dr Rashid Pelpuo

Hon. Dr. Rashid Pelpuo was three times a Minister in Ghana.

He was the Minister, for Youths and Sports and twice Minister of State at the office of the President, one being in charge of Private Sector Development.

Presently an elected Member of Parliament he served as the Deputy Majority Leader of Ghana's Parliament in the 6th Parliament.

He is the Ambassador at Large of World Institute for Peace (WIP) for West African Countries.

He won the award of World Icon of Peace last month for the recognition of his distinct performance in peace promotion and humanitarian services."

• Language: English
• Publisher: One Point Six Technologies Pvt Ltd
• Release date: Jan 9, 2019
• ISBN: 9789388573450

Nayanika Dey

Nayanika Dey is an Indian poetess and songwriter from West Bengal, India. She pursued her Graduations in Accounts and then she started pursuing Actuarial Science but she decided to quit Actuarial for the sake of her passion. She has won The NajiNaaman’s Literary Prize 2017 in recognition of her meritorious manuscript “LIBRARY OF PERFUMES” and is bestowed upon the coveted title of Naji Naaman Literary Laureate and the Honorary member of Maison Naaman pour la Culture. She is a Gold Medalist at the “Pentasi-B India World Poetry Festival” held at Ramoji Film City, Hyderabad. She won the International Diploma, “Temirqazyq - The Best Poet- Writer of the World” hosted by The World Nations Writer’s Union in honor of the 26th Anniversary of Independence of Kazakhstan. Nayanika Dey has bagged the International Prize Special Mention Foreign Poet Award in the poetry contest organized by Unicef at Bitetto in Italy. She has been awarded the Emotion Award for Foreign Poetry. Nayanika is the Permanent Member of International Writers and Artists Association (Represented at UNESCO), USA. Nayanika has been honored with the title of “TomakeSelam” for writing with the motive to bring a change for the good. She has been appointed as the Administrator for World Institute for Peace (Nigeria), West Bengal Branch.

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