THE debate over whether a piece of literature — or literature at large, for that matter — is a portrayal of the times and society in which it is created or if it has the power to mould social norms, traditions and perceptions is an old one. If Kishwar Naheed’s latest collection of poetry is anything to go by, it is more a case of the former rather than the latter.

These are troubled times on Planet Earth and Kishwar’s poetic pursuits bring to surface the many faultlines that run across thinking minds wherever they happen to be. From Guantanamo Bay to Fallujah and from Palestine to Sarajevo, the poet has tried to capture the various currents of international politics.

But the focus of the book, as should have been the case, remains on Pakistan. The unsettling happenings in areas like Swat and Bajaur are there. The suicide bombers are there and so are Lal Masjid, Jamia Hafsa and the Hasba Bill. Also part of the package are vignettes of the 2005 earthquake in the country’s northern areas, as well as odes to people such as Ahmed Faraz, Benazir Bhutto and Edward Said.

Kishwar’s name has always been associated more with free verse rather than the traditional ghazal and nazm formats. The current volume lends strength to that impression for it contains almost twice as many free verses as ghazals.

Perhaps the constraints of conventional expressions keep her from indulging in them to express the complex ideas that she chooses to discuss, especially of the kind that are part of the volume in hand.

Besides, a conformist approach would make her gift-wrap her expressions in idioms, similes and metaphors when, by the looks of it, she prefers to be more direct and vocal about her feelings which is something possible only in free verse.

Take, for instance, the first verse in the volume. Titled, 9/11… Amreeka, hum tumharay ghulam hain (9/11 … America, we are your slaves). She has taken the US to task on behalf of all the nations that find themselves at the receiving end of the high-handedness of the global policeman who has himself become rowdy in more ways than one.

Kishwar hits the bull’s eye at the end of the three-page verse with a finale that locates the enemy within, not without:
Apney apney mansab ko sabt-i-da’imee dainey Tab zameer baicha tha Ab zameen baichain-ge (To eternalise our own stay in power; we had first sold our souls; now is the time for selling off land.)

No idiom, howsoever strong, could have conveyed such a direct indictment of the national leadership. Besides, it also shows Kishwar’s ability to feel the pulse of the masses for in their perception there is indeed some nefarious design afoot in that direction.

There are portions in the book, however, where Kishwar has been swept away by the current of her thoughts and the bluntness of approach that has at times given her verses a somewhat wooden touch.

Wahshat aur barood mein laptee hoee sha’iree
By Kishwar Naheed
Sang-e-Meel Publications, Lahore
ISBN 969-35-2220-6
175pp. Rs250