A Sense of Duality: Chrome Red by Durlabh Singh
I first met Durlabh Singh while gathering together poets from around the world for the Beyond Borders Press publications The World Healing Book and The Book of Hope. I was immediately impressed with his creativity and spiritual vitality. The way he seamlessly interwoven the reality of modern life with the hope of the next life. In his collection, Chrome Red, he has exemplified this duality.
Durlabh, a Sikh from London England, knows the struggle to
find spiritual calm in a raging sea of chaos. He covers a wide range of topics,
dealing with the nature of human experience, life, love, loss and beauty. You
can sense his earnest struggle in these poems. Each word, each phrase is a
reflection of his healing but scarred soul. On his latest collection Chrome Red, published by Author
Publishing LTD of
Durlabh has found a way to simultaneously communicate the struggles of
the spirit with the struggles of the mundane. He has found the common threads
of truth and has woven them into a beautiful and moving tapestry. The reader
starts out slowly and measured but before long, you find yourself fantastically
lost and awash in verse. And yes, there is many Sikh-influenced poems here, but
there are also many surprises too, such as “Hunters of Sea,” the haunting
“Epping Forest” or the ancient “Titikaka.” There are so many excellent poems to
choose from, it is quite difficult to chose only a handful and claim them the
standouts. Indeed, it would be a daunting task to choose just one to represent
this collection.
Durlabh Singh is the pre-eminent Sikh writer/poet of his day, the modern reincarnation of Rumi, and he is also one of the most moving poets of our time. I would highly recommend Chrome Red.
Note: The forward of Chrome Red, entitled “The Poetics of
Metaphorical Synergy” was written by legendary poet and spiritualist Eva Acqui
and it is a very poignant view of the poetic discourse of metasynthesis
in Durlabh’s poetry.