‘Timeless Echoes: Poetry’ by Balroop Singh:

Book Review

I read ‘Timeless Echoes’ by Balroop Singh on my Kindle.

It was a therapeutic read, a soothing balm to the spirit of a poetry lover.

It took me an hour to finish the book, but I’m not done with the immense comfort I’ve felt reading these wonderful couplets about reminisces, unrequited love, mother’s love. et al. I was personally very stressed with all the work I have on hand, especially in the new year and found a lot of peace reading ‘Timeless Echoes’ and musing on them ever since.

We all basically know that you never are ‘done’ with reading a good book of poetry. If the poems are good, if they speak to your soul, then you keep on returning to those poems or that book of poems, again and again. Singh’s poems happen to be therapeutic and healing. She uses the beauty of the natural world and mysticism to bring out the theme of her poetry in this wonderful collection.

She often, in these poems, shows two lovers gazing or in conversation with each other in beautiful and enchanting natural settings trying to pry out secrets deeply hidden for many years from each other, which I think is so beautifully done.

The nature themes along with the people or miasmas involved in the poems, strike a chord within the reader and, believe me, you are totally healed by them. According to me, the poems are about past memories good and bad, unrequited love, love that never dies, and the journey of a human being towards salvation through memories and reminiscences that ‘echo’ forever in us.

This book of poetry really spoke to me, and my soul. It especially evoked old feelings in me about a past unrequited love, which made me feel the moments again with the mind of calmness and profound detachment, as if I had already surpassed the moment but, those memories will always be a part of who I am.

There are many such unrequited and eternal love poems in this collection that made me get the ‘feels’ – ‘Silent Echo’; ‘Eternal Wait’; ‘Eternal Love’; ‘My First Love;, ‘Do You Love Me’; ‘Love Changes’; ‘New Life’; ‘Signs Don’t Betray.’ I would like to analyze here Balroop Singh’s enchanting poem which was really therapeutic for me, the poem ‘My First Love’.

The poem brought back the ‘echoes’ of my unrequited love with a boy in school whom I never even spoke to but loved very much. He and I often went to the library to borrow books. He loved reading, so did I. Now when I watch my students read or when I encourage my students to read, I think about him, our days in the library and at school, which will always remain ‘timeless’ like the soft echo of turning pages of a good poetry book.

Another soothing love poem in ‘Timeless Echoes’ that spoke to me was ‘Eternal Wait’. I’ve been stuck with this unrequited love for sixteen years (yes, I have loved one person for sixteen years whom I’ve not even spoken to) and just like Balroop’s poem, I too don’t want these years of waiting sincerely to just fade away into oblivion. That’s basically because I waited with absolute sincerity, true devotion and dedication. This waiting ‘echo’ has to be placed in memory somewhere, and as I continue to wait into my seventeenth year, soulful poems like Balroop’s ‘Eternal Wait’ will always soothe my aching heart.

Then there is this other side to Singh’s poems which I felt really spoke to the ‘core’ of who I am as a person.

Poems like these were: ‘Illusional Calm’, ‘The Door’ and ‘Your Eyes Say All’. I would like to focus here on ‘Your Eyes Say All’. This poem is really therapeutic for me at this point of time in my life as I am living a quiet but hectic life of teaching, writing, reading and publishing, but I have no friends at all other than immediate family and family friends and I have no social life whatever! As Balroop in ‘Your Eyes Say All’ says, there is an abyss in me which I hide behind my dimply smiles. No one is allowed to see that chasm but it is there and it is deep. I’ve learnt to forgive but I’ve not learnt to let go, and if you look closely you will be able to see all this in my eyes.

And lastly, Singh’s poems apply the healing balm touch to these old wounds. Some of those poems which I loved were: ‘They Are Not Born’, ‘Signs Don’t Betray’, ’The Valley I Love’ and ‘My Mother’. I’m going to talk about ‘The Valley I Love’ and ‘My Mother.’

Where ‘The Valley I Love’ is concerned, it was a poem that descried nature at its best, and I love nature especially gardens with lots of pretty flowers with bees and butterflies hovering around them. I have a modest garden which I tend to along with my gardener. Most of the flowers I grow are white in color because I just love the color white which symbolizes purity and the denizens of my garden are sweet little souls. ‘The Valley I Love’ made me remember this garden and my love for plants, bees and butterflies in all their hues and colors, which was healing, invigorating and full of old memories.

Where Balroop’s poem ‘My Mother’ is concerned, I cried, because the poem reminded me of all the struggles my mother (mama) has been through to raise me into the person I am today. I wish I could have been better, maybe a doctor or lawyer or engineer or architect or pilot, et al., which are the jobs most Indians want to pursue. But I just became a writer, teacher and publisher; there was too much printer’s ink in my veins and arteries that I couldn’t help myself but be who I am. And mama has supported me through it all, just as Balroop says – mama was there to see it all. Mama tried very hard to fill my estranged father’s shoes. You don’t know how difficult it is to be a single mother in superstitious and conservative India. It’s a mountain of a task, but mama was always there for me and is still there for me even as she turns sixty-nine and I turn thirty. But Balroop’s poem makes me realize that I didn’t do so badly after all, and maybe there is more to come out of my pen than is evident at the moment. But till then, mama and I will always be together, wild horses won’t keep us apart!

So, Balroop Singh’s poems touched my soul and started a process of healing in me.

If you want this therapeutic dose of poems then please buy this book titled ‘Timeless Echoes’ by Balroop Singh immediately.

I highly recommend this book as a book for therapy, soul balm and healing. The poems don’t destroy you; they are tender, soothing and beautiful, and a must read for all of us poetry lovers stuck on our old memories and times not forgotten. I really think Balroop should go in for poetry therapy because her poems really are like the soothing touch of a grandmother’s gentle hand on a fevered brow. Do support her work and buy this book on your Kindle right now.

Kudo to the therapeutic poet Balroop Singh! May her poetry touch your soul and bring in the light, even if it is through a tiny crack.

Happy reading to you all this summer 2019!