Kabir Deb reviews Vikram Kolmannskog’s The Garden Tantra (Published by Red River, 2023) calling it the ritual of unfolding the greenery.
The simplicity of a wedding, the flower associated with it, and its meditative experience make the poem Rhododendron Bud filter the heaviness of the ritual, then softly blending with the skin of the cross-legged Buddha. Vikram Kolmannskog’s The Garden Tantra, encloses within it a thought where the poet’s journey towards seeking his identity grows beside a flower, on the edge of a leaf, above a white bubble butt, and sometimes, on the tip of human language. Taking a step towards a revolution is the primary objective of both the path of Tantra and poetry.
The readers of the morally obliged generation are vulnerable. So, one has to seek the middle way to stay relevant. Paying homage to Tantra would not be enough unless the practice blooms in the mainstream circle. It is for the same reason that the entire path of Tantra is so hard to follow, as it is much more than swallowing its theory. The message can only be felt by manifesting the thought, and then implementing the rituals. Vikram’s book is a chocolate cake we love to eat. To taste the chocolate, our spoon should dig deep. If we are taking a bite of it, our lips have to be placed right where the cake promises to melt.