Love can be a blessing for someone, while for someone, it can be torture. The ones who find a person who would love and adores them for who they are would also consider themselves lucky. But one thing that should always be remembered is to love oneself before loving others and even expecting someone to love them later. “Hiraeth Home: An Illusion” by Lavanya Bilwal is a collection of poems about experiences in love and how they impact an individual. While the author shares her thoughts on life as it happens, the readers would also find a realistic portrayal of the states of mind people go through.
There was a time when love was the theme in poetry writing to show the positives that it brought along. As times have changed, love still remains the subject, but in addition to the positives, the negatives find an equal share of representation. The readers witness that in “Hiraeth” and at the same time, also draw inferences to the changed representation despite the subject being still the same. As the author describes in the blurb that “the book has insights of my rib cage poured blatantly, pieces of love, loss, and longing,” this idea clearly resonates throughout the book. The poet vividly describes the journey of love where someone is cheated, hurt while for someone, love is the true and pure feeling. Due to the diversity of subjects that the author touches upon, the book becomes easily relatable for the readers, and they connect with “Hiraeth” instantly. As a title, “Hiraeth” baffles the readers and takes their minds on a spin to a wonderland where they consider the different interpretations and meanings that the title can hold.
Love can be a painful journey if one has the wrong partner. The choice of a wrong partner would be disastrous to mental health and peace. These poems share this beautiful lesson in an effortless and poignant manner. Bilwal shares such vital lessons through her poetry which become the guidelines for many and help them understand what happened to them and the reasons behind it. Through her experience, she shares what may have occurred with many and hence becomes the representative of many altogether. She writes that one must have patience and wait for the right time. In her untitled poems, the poet maintains continuity and flow of thoughts, which flows into the poetry of varying lengths, and the usage of random images makes the book a bundle of emotions loaded in the poetic words of the author. She chooses to keep her poems without a name which makes it difficult for the readers to pick any one favorite poem in particular.
Due to the subject of “Hiraeth” being quite universal and relatable in nature, the readership base of this book is likely to be broad and extensive. The poems would be liked by all for their crisp and articulative style and also the short manner in which they are written. They are compact, concise, and power-packed with feelings in the fewer number of words the author writes in. Through her book, which spans a little more than 200 pages, the author explores different stages and phases in the love life of a person. On reading through these, the readers understand that the journey is similar for many, and even the experiences. The feeling of being in the same boat gives the readers a ray of hope and a desire to live life from a new end once again. Altogether, the book instills positive thoughts in the hearts of the readers.
The readers who have an interest in reading poetry born from love experiences would find this book catching their interest in no time. However, those who are not readers of this genre would find the book having fine touches of reality and imparting of wisdom. The readers who are interested in reading love poetry which also has frequent displays of maturity and wisdom that one acquires through experience can pick “Hireath” by Lavanya Bilwal not just to see the emotion of love resonate on the pages of the book but also to understand how this one emotion can create an incredible impact on life and human personality altogether.
