Ranjit Hoskote’s Shimmering Lights
At the core of Ranjit Hoskote’s latest poetry collection Icelight is a restlessness, a searching presented as a series of inward questions which never quite find their resolve; they keep going until the question itself becomes the endgame.
Published in February 2023, Ranjit Hoskote’s eighth poetry collection Icelight stems from the terminus of his keen observations of life. The poems reflect an absolute presence with the living world, yet a deep communion with a long-standing unbroken solitude. It is a lyrical symphony of carefully chosen words, a response to the sharp, biting terrain of the contemporary world, fraught with a global disturbing urbanscape and an endangered environment.
Hoskote’s verses reaffirm that the art of poetry, like the art of living, is a matter of the quality of attention we pay to things. His verses syncopate between exultation and lament, but invariably, find the golden mean that every observer strives for. His verses give attention to the human condition to that highest degree creates bonds of sympathy with human and non-human entities, presenting states of the ‘inter’ being so profound that they open portals to the eternal.
In “Aubade”, he writes:
Rumours of wind, banners of cloud.
The low earth shakes but the storm
has not arrived. You pack
for the journey, look up, look through
the doors at trees shedding their leaves
too soon, a track on which silk shoes
would be wasted, a moon
still dangling above a boat.
The poems in this collection represent an impressive kaleidoscopic range of forms, influences, and subject matters. Hoskote displays a distinct willingness to take risks, to play on the page with sound and image. One gets an inkling of the ways in which each verse foreshadows something of a larger body of work to come. These are formal, intelligent poems, demonstrating an immense control of language and lineation. At their core is a restlessness, a searching presented as a series of inward questions which never quite find their resolve; they keep going until the question itself becomes the endgame. As a result, the collection becomes a mesmerizing expedition into the realms of art, philosophy, and the human experience.
Ever-prolific, Hoskote, masterfully weaves words into a tapestry of emotions, thoughts, and vivid landscapes, transporting readers to the icy terrains of introspection. The poems feel as if they are moving in and out of consciousness, preoccupied with the language of psychology, tapered by wonder and restraint. There’s a casual knowingness to the work which encourages the reader to also peer beyond their reality, in the hope that something new will appear.
Icelight is a well-balanced mix of pastiche and observation; with several poems that appear in the form of dedications. Hoskote’s world fixates on the political, the environmental and the social. Each associative turn seems loaded with news, pathos, crisis, or intrigue. One such example is the poem “Dust”:
This golden light you see is all dust.
If you’d noticed that when you began to hunt
for the things that escaped us
over stalled monsoons and cayenne summers:
sparrows missing from the corners of your eye.
Partridge clouds, trailing, lost at night.
Quadrants hanging, left unhinged by contrary winds.
The diversity of subjects Hoskote addresses in Icelight striking. From mythological tales to existential pondering, his poems traverse diverse intellectual landscapes. Whether he is musing on ancient deities or reflecting on contemporary global issues, his words resonate with a sense of authenticity and depth. In “Paishachi”, he writes:
His words sound like nothing that guests have ever spoken to hosts.
This is the language of my people, the language of living ghosts.
through the mother-of-pearl shutters
We are
what we’ve lost
Here one cannot help but be reminded of Hoskote’s previous collection Hunchprose (2021), where he attempted to affirm all of humanity enduring beyond their very own barbarism, hoping to find a home in a world beleaguered by climate crisis, the pandemic, and genocide. Hunchprose the poet’s fierce, poignant testament to these urgencies. This collection, too, was vibrant with linguistic experiments. It wove unpredictable patterns of language and meaning to celebrate our plural selves.
Preceding Hunchprose, Hoskote’s collection Jonahwhale (2018), took on very current themes in playful, mostly aquatic scope, moving from the ocean to the river Ganga to Bombay's Marine Drive waterfront in three beautiful movements. The book invoked the narratives of Biblical prophet Jonah, who escapes death by spending three nights in the belly of a whale, and Melville’s Moby Dick, whose obsessive Captain Ahab chases the eponymous whale. These poems resurrected the diverse figures who ran ships along the global trade routes of the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. Hoskote reflects on a city at war with itself, and a planet embattled by ecological and political crisis. He put into play the idea of cultural confluence—a sophisticated project in anamnesia, delving into fragments and episodes from the multiple pasts that we have inherited.
The poems feel as if they are moving in and out of consciousness, preoccupied with the language of psychology, tapered by wonder and restraint. There’s a casual knowingness to the work which encourages the reader to also peer beyond their reality, in the hope that something new will appear.
What sets Icelight at par with his previous two collections is Hoskote’s command over language and his ability to describe the quotidian in novel ways. The textured vocabulary is rich and layered, each word chosen with meticulous care. Icelight is his deeply thought-provoking foray into the subtle play of human experiences.
In poems like “In This Country of Silence”, Hoskote captures the essence of time’s passage in a nation, and the selective ways our minds choose to sculpt our pasts:
In this country of exile
charred wisps of newspapers float across the river
no drumbeat follows no plucked string shivers
in their wake the sun is a searchlight
the jars in every stall brim with strawberry juice
and this tongue’s gone dry
waiting for refugee songs to return
In the poignant “Krishna’s End”, Hoskote contemplates the universe’s infinite nature and a body’s own finiteness within it. Such meditations invite readers to ponder their place in the cosmos and the transient nature of human existence. This ability to bridge the microcosm and the macrocosm, and showcases Hoskote’s skill in transcending conventional boundaries.
Gurgle of rising waters
the tide is right cries of gulls
you thrash through sludge
to stay in the dance
stay slay let go the blade
take the arrowhead
aimed at your heel
falter fall struggle to your feet
in the forest of the gods
as it sinks
Elsewhere in Icelight, Hoskote’s verses endure the ravages of a fallen environment and the resultant earth, as a consequence of the loss. He holds the contradictions generated by humanity’s irresponsibility of our planet—but he leaves these contradictions unresolved, creating a searing impact upon the reader. The poet’s linguistic finesse allows him to articulate complex emotions with simplicity, rendering his poetry accessible yet profound. Readers are likely to find themselves returning often to his verses, and discovering new layers of meanings every time.
The collection’s titular poem, “Icelight”, serves as a compass guiding readers through the various terrains of the human soul. Hoskote’s craftsmanship truly shines here, as he employs imagery of ice and light to explore the fragile beauty of existence. His verses shimmer like sunlight.
Icelight is a luminous soma: that divine nectar, that awakens the senses and nourishes the soul. This collection stands as a testament to the power of words to freeze time, allowing readers to gaze into the icelight of their own introspections. Whether he’s delving into the depths of ancient myths or shedding light on contemporary issues, Hoskote’s voice is one that whispers to the soul, urging readers to embrace their own complexities.
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Vinita Agrawal's poetry collections include Twilight Language / The Natural Language of Grief, Two Full Moons, Words Not Spoken, The Longest Pleasure, and The Silk Of Hunger. She had edited the collections Count Every Breath, Yearbook of Indian Poetry in English, and Open Your Eyes. You can find her on Twitter: @vinita64 and Instagram: @vinitaagrawal18.
