O’ beloved, the heart sings; listen to my heart sing!
It has no words, no notes, no rhythm.
Madhu Kailas’s O’ Beloved, the Heart Sings is an inspired collection of 100 love poems that grieve and celebrate a distant beloved. The lovelorn poet figure variously meditates upon the moon, yearns in eternal wait, speaks to himself as a madman, prays, and weeps—moving ultimately from anguish to tranquillity in a masterfully orchestrated sequence. Written in the spirit of an alap in a Hindustani classical raga, the collection inches towards a fantastic final discovery—that the heart must go on singing.
Madhu Kailas is the pen name of Kingshuk Basu. He is a native of Kolkata and has lived in various places in India and the US. He is the author of two poetry selections, The Birds Fly in Silence and The Boatman of Murshidabad. He has been published in journals like Indian Literature, The Amistad, Acumen, Slippery Elm, The Gateway Review, California Quarterly, FLARE–The Flagler Review, Plainsongs Poetry Magazine, The Bosphorus Book Review, Marathon Literary Review, Dragon Poet Review, New Mexico Review, Sutterville Review, Punch Magazine, Shallow Tales Review, The Literary Voyage, Langlit, and a poetry anthology entitled Converse. He lives with his family in Kolkata.
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