Published in Canada in September 2016, “Between Dawn and Birth of a Song” is a volume of poetry by Canada-based exile Tibetan Tenpa Dhargyal Gashi.
At the end of November 2016, Bhuchung D. Sonam wrote a review that was published on High Peaks Pure Earth:
Free of didactic itchy-preachy Buddhist mumbo-jumbo and chest-thumping bullhorn-bearing political catchphrases, his voice trails into the silent corners of his heart in search of a space – a miniature home – to finish the ‘leftover conversations’, to catch ‘pieces of laughter lodged between the chairs and abandoned napkins’ or with aching hope to find mother’s silhouette set ‘against the borrowed light.’
However, like many other writers writing in a language acquired through circumstances forced upon themselves, Tenpa, every now and then, falls back into a habit of using, as Orwell says, ‘worn-out phrases’ and ‘dying metaphors’ that should have been in the trash bin with its lid sealed. Nevertheless, Between Dawn and Birth of a Song is a precious book containing 72 poems spanning over three decades.
In a dream, he sees a Chinese soldier dead, and a voice in the dark night bellows ‘Such traitors die swift!’ When he turns the dead body over, aghast, he sees his own ‘very living face’ staring back at him.
The essence of all art is to display the nature of all things in all their beauty and starkness. Tenpa does it well.
The poetry volume can be ordered online here: http://www.blurb.ca/b/7323005-between-dawn-and-birth-of-a-song
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