Book Review: Songs of Raengdailu by Achingliu Kamei

Dr. Jyothsnaphanija reviews Songs of Raengdailu and observes how it helped her discover music, memory, and resistance in Achingliu Kamei’s works.

• ISBN: 978-93-5529-012-0
• Publisher: Author’s press
• Year: October 2021
• Pages: 147

Achingliu Kamei’s recently published book of poems Songs of Raengdailu is a careful selection of the poet’s delicate perceptions of the world around her, her forgotten stories, and her take on gender inequalities. The 52 poems in this collection contain rich imagery and vibrant thoughts, accompanied by a wonderful preface by the noted novelist Easterine Kire. The poems are highly lyrical with the images of ’unacknowledged flowers’, ‘last rays of the mountaintop Sun’, ‘yonder river’, ‘Birds flit in and out doing their dance of courtship’, ‘Winter sun casting long slender shadows’, ‘mumbling brooks’, and ‘fireflies seasons’.