Publication Date: 29th May 2025
Purchase Link: https://www.amazon.in/gp/product/9370095098
Genre: Poetry
4 Stars
One Liner: Soulful indeed!
Between the Shadow and the Soul is a collection of poems about love, loss, and life, inspired by Neruda’s works.
The book is divided into three sections: Love, Life, and Loss.
The poems are arranged theme-wise, with each section having a varied count. Some poems have pencil-sketched illustrations made by the poet’s daughter. I wish all poems had these little illustrations. Despite being rustic, they didn’t appear out of place in the book (probably because I read a paperback and not an eBook).
The book starts with a short note and content warning about disturbing themes.
The poet has a wonderful vocabulary, and the words flow like a river—sometimes gentle, sometimes meandering, sometimes in a heady rush—but always with feeling, freedom, and abandon.
The words linger at times and slip through the fingers other times. However, they leave their essence in the silence like the subtle whiff of perfume in the air.
Though some poems are tinged with dark edges of pain, fear, and loss, they don’t overwhelm the reader. Almost every poem in the book has a touch of softness. While a few poems trace melancholy, others shimmer with hope. Yearning and longing sit side by side with love and loss. There’s pain, but there’s healing and a promise of love, one that can last forever.
While I liked most poems, these touched my heart:
- For Eternity
- Let Us Meet (the poem is way, way more beautiful than the book that inspired it)
- Partners Forever
- Language of Our Love
- The Wind in the Woods (the title is so close to my website’s name!)
- Shades of Life
- Dawn and Dusk (I love dusks more, though!)
- Of Glitter Dust and Promises
- Lazy and Slow Mornings
- The State of Hope
- A Teardrop’s Descent
- When You Leave
I wish I could have read the book sooner, but life happened, as it often does. However, I trust timing and know that I could savor this book now because I am in the right frame of mind.
To summarize, Between the Shadow and the Soul is a touching, soulful, and lingering collection of poems. This book is best read a few poems at a time, whenever you want to sit in solitude and think about nothing and everything.
Disclaimer: Sonal is a dear friend. She sent me a copy of the book, not for a review but because she knows poetry is my first love. Still, this review is voluntary and contains my honest opinions.
