Under the Handstand Statue Man by Aswin Vijayan
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“As with the title Under the Handstand Statue Man, these deceptively complex poems attend to what lies beneath. Aswin is a poet as equally attuned to sound and rhythm as the inner life of poetic form, as he is to the unsaid and the undemonstrated—the inner life of the everyday. Here, the detritus of the ordinary—a “gentle shower”, the “dishes done”, and dust settling “on a tablecloth”—sits at odds with an extraordinary undercurrent of uncertainty. The poems know exactly what they mean to say, and they say it precisely and, often, tenderly. Like the thoughts that “gather with the suddenness of summer showers”, the images in these poems are often anxious and hopeful at once. I delighted in the introspection of the speakers and their careful attention to the unspoken—to the living, to the moment, to the now.”
— Dawn Watson, Author of The Stack of Owls is Getting Higher
“The poems in Aswin Vijayan’s debut collection bear witness to the startling beauty of dailyness—rain falling on freshly wiped windows, the hoof steps of ammamma’s walker, a happy dog turning in its sleep… There is a stillness at the heart of each poem, a stillness that weaves a spell. Each poem is carefully crafted, embellished with just the right amount of detail. A fine storyteller, there is a certain playfulness to the way Aswin deploys form. Aswin’s is a gentle but assured voice, a voice that teases out the mystery of the ordinary moment. You will want to savour these poems one at a time.”
— K Srilata, Poet, Translator, and Academic
About the Author:
Aswin Vijayan is an Assistant Professor at the Zamorin’s Guruvayurappan College, Calicut and has an MA in Poetry from the Seamus Heaney Centre, Queen's University Belfast. His poems have been published in the Yearbook of Indian Poetry in English, Witness: The Red River Book of Poetry of Dissent, The Bombay Literary Magazine, and The Tangerine, among others. He was awarded the Toto Award for Creative Writing in 2022.
— Dawn Watson, Author of The Stack of Owls is Getting Higher
“The poems in Aswin Vijayan’s debut collection bear witness to the startling beauty of dailyness—rain falling on freshly wiped windows, the hoof steps of ammamma’s walker, a happy dog turning in its sleep… There is a stillness at the heart of each poem, a stillness that weaves a spell. Each poem is carefully crafted, embellished with just the right amount of detail. A fine storyteller, there is a certain playfulness to the way Aswin deploys form. Aswin’s is a gentle but assured voice, a voice that teases out the mystery of the ordinary moment. You will want to savour these poems one at a time.”
— K Srilata, Poet, Translator, and Academic
About the Author:
Aswin Vijayan is an Assistant Professor at the Zamorin’s Guruvayurappan College, Calicut and has an MA in Poetry from the Seamus Heaney Centre, Queen's University Belfast. His poems have been published in the Yearbook of Indian Poetry in English, Witness: The Red River Book of Poetry of Dissent, The Bombay Literary Magazine, and The Tangerine, among others. He was awarded the Toto Award for Creative Writing in 2022.