In a real sense, literature is about the absolute flow of emotions that are not limited to any form or genre. This is proven true by Shaheen Kazi, who, after her debut novel, “Age.. Was Just a Number,” comes back with new work from her pen, “Cupid’s Arrow,” which, unlike the former, is a collection of poetry showing another artistic shade of the writer. Cupid is famous in Greek and Roman mythology for his notoriety and the mania of love that he spreads around, and as the title suggests, the collection is about the manners in which cupid operates in the world of humans and how human relationships are impacted. Kazi just gives it a modern touch with the references of present-day lives of people and the position love has in them.

Shaheen Kazi’s brilliance shines in new and unexpected ways with this masterpiece. “Cupid’s Arrow” starts with a beautiful quote, “Some conversations induce poetry, some conversations are Poetry…” The first and foremost feature of the book is that it begins with a beautiful definition of every relationship, which she penned down in poems. The book is about love, whether it is about the sweetness of love or bitterness; all experiences of love, good or bad, find a platform for equal mention in Kazi’s work.

The poems intimately describe how, for some love is sweet like brownies and how, for some others, it’s sour like lime. Being the most potent emotion a human being experiences in their lifetime, love finds ample expression in Kazi’s work. As a whole, the feelings of love and even loneliness of love are expressed transparently in poems. Long-distance lovers feeling are expressed very wholeheartedly in the poem named “Long Distance Valentine.” The cry of a cheated lover for his beloved is so powerfully described that readers can feel the pain in the poem called “My broken heart.” The poet says that love never ends as one can read and feel the depth. Intimacy described so purely. The lust poems are pious. All the symbols of love are represented magnificently.

Cupid, as would be described in the writer’s words, ”Cupid, he’s not at all stupid!!”

Kazi’s use of poetic devices is very significant. Her poems are replete with poetic devices such as imagery, metaphor, personification, simile, rhyme, and rhythm. The poems are long, but the elements used in writing poems, which are different poetic devices, don’t let the readers lose attention; instead, they remain interested and involved in the reading. The element of humor and lightness in the tense and worrying atmosphere of routine life comes as a relief to the readers. There are poems for all kinds of lovers, boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, unromantic husbands as after marriage, men may turn to be unromantic eventually, wife, him, her, poems for dating couples. There is something or the other for all kinds of readers in Kazi’s work.

The best part of the book is there are funny poems for valentine’s as it lightens the mood. “My Valentine Story” is a humorous poem that can tickle the readers and make them smile effortlessly. The steadfast love of a writer and reader is penned down exclusively when Kazi writes, “I can’t write without a reader. It’s precisely like a kiss—you can’t do it alone. Maybe this is why we read, and why in moments of darkness, we return to books: to find words for what we already know.” In her poem “Writer & Reader,” Kazi has done absolute justice to this quote. While reading “Writer & Reader,” the readers would remember Kazi’s lines in the beginning of the book, which elaborately explore this beautiful relationship with the fewest of words, “I am an Author only when I have a Reader.” On the day of love, Valentine’s Day, the book “Cupid’s Arrow” can be the best wingman a reader could have. When they are revealing their feelings to their crush, the right book can be both a safety net and the spark that starts a long-awaited romance. If ever the readers wondered what the lovechild of “Twilight” series and “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” would look like in poems, they should give “Cupid’s Arrow” a chance.

Author Name: Shaheen Kazi
Book Title: Cupids Arrow
Reviewer: Akhila Saroha at Criticspace
Publisher: Evincepub Publishing
Order On: Amazon

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