'Lahana Ra Teer' launched

By A Staff Reporter,Kathmandu, Dec. 11: 'Lahana Ra Teer', an anthology of poems by Avaya Shrestha, was released in the capital on Saturday.

Member of House of Representatives Santosh Pariyar, critic Gyanu Adhikari and poet Shrestha himself made the book public amid the presence of a large number of literary figures. 

Lawmaker Pariyar found the poems of the book as the powerful voice of Dalits, women and suppressed people. “ Poet Shrestha voiced the voiceless people with the rich poetic aesthetics,” he said at the 'poetry discourse' moderated by journalist Deepak Sapkota.

Nepal Bhasa poet and culture expert Suresh Kiran termed the book as the poetry of Nepal Bhasa written in Nepali. 

“The poems are written in Nepali but the rich images and symbols of Newar culture have made them the Nepal Bhasa poems,” Kiran said while answering   dashing query by moderator Sapkota.

Critic Adhikari found the poet fully empathetic to the women community. “He has written some poems on women's sensibility with such powerful feelings which is not written even by women poets,” she claimed.

Poet Shrestha said that there should be no difference between life of a poet and his poetry. “Poetry always fights for the betterment of human civilisation and I am doing the same through my poetry,” he said. 

“Shrestha's poems touch the heart first, then they shake your brain,” Bhupendra Khadka, proprietor of the publication house, Bookhill, said.

Divided in four parts in different titles, the book consists of 49 insightful poems. 

The book is published by Bookhill Publications, Kathmandu.

Before the formal launch, the anthology had been a topic of complimentary buzz among poetry lovers.