Flames to Embers: Confessional Poetry

By Sassoto

Flames to Embers is a collection of thirty-six poems written over twelve years and presented in the order that they were conceived.
Most of the poems are inspired from the poets own experience in the matters of the heart, from teenage till adulthood. A few are impersonated stories of people he observed or characters he conjured. The impulse behind each of them has been revealed in the penultimate section of the book, followed by his smaller, more candid musings.
The flames of love, hope, and empathy burn in you and me. But what happens when someone stomps on them- without a second thought? Do we stop burning? Do those emotions die? No.
The flames turn to embers, seething underneath the ash, glowing bright red like a wounded heart.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Partridge Publishing India
• Release date: Jul 24, 2015
• ISBN: 9781482850376

Sassoto

‘SASSOTO’ is the Bengali pronunciation of ‘Saswata’ Ghosh, which means ‘everlasting’. Born on Oct 01, 1988 in Bhagalpur, India, he found love in literature as a teenager. An ardent follower of plot-based poetry laced with rhyme, Sassoto brews personal experiences into his “confessional” poetry. He hopes that someday, someone fighting a similar battle chance upon his verses and realize, “I was not the first ; I won’t be the last. My present has already been his past.”

Book preview

Flames

to

Embers

CONFESSIONAL POETRY

SASSOTO

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Copyright © 2015 by Sassoto.

ISBN:      Softcover      978-1-4828-5039-0

                eBook           978-1-4828-5037-6

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INDEX

In Memory of…

My grandmother, whom I fondly called ‘Thaamma’.

(Who cared for me like a mother, when my own left at four)

Dedicated to …

All those who were pitched into one-sided battles

That were never meant to be won.

To Burn and Flicker

Whilst being fascinated as a teenager by ballads, elegies and romanticism of traditional English poetry; I would think to myself- Where would I find a plot so engaging, a hero fit for glorifying and a villain worth vilifying, so as to write with such fervor? And then I stood before a mirror.

This realization accounts for my fondness in rhyme and poetic instruments of the yore. My ‘confessional’ poetry on the other hand, evolved both as my sanctuary and therapy. When the heart gets too heavy and the arteries clog up with repressed emotions of pain, regret, guilt, despair and the like, it is best to make an incision with the pen, and let these feelings transude.

We burn…you and me, in the emotions of joy, hope, love and passion. It lights up our path and imparts the glint in our eyes that writers scribe about. Sometimes our flames dance with others’, almost certain to spiral into a wildfire of union and ecstasy. On other days it scalds us, and sometimes it engulfs. Whatever the anguish, it cannot extinguish!

The Flames…they turn to embers; still as alive, still as potent.

Feed them, walk on them. Reclaim yourself- as I did.

S A S S O T O