Everyone talks about being happy. Quotes inspiring people to spread happiness and smiles are ubiquitous. But what about the hidden emotions behind smiles? Where does one share the pain, insecurities and longing hidden behind the smiles that seem prevalent?

Shraddha Singh’s debut, Behind Smiles is one such endeavour to express many emotions longing to be taken care of. The book is a collection of 21 poems within poetry forms ranging from free verses, rondeau to tanka. Most of them are lovelorn poems, weaved around human relationships, destiny, freedom and self-determination.

Blurb

Life is a journey and it goes on. We’ve crossed many summits , yet many are ahead ! ‘Behind Smiles’ is a collection of 21 poems dedicated to and born out of emotions & situations of life. We all have something that we hide behind our smiles. Read these lines by Shraddha Singh to connect with your Behind Smiles.

In store for readers

A package of myriad emotions, weaved with words. Each poem makes the reader see through the ocean of human relations and hidden emotions behind the made up smiles everyone tries to portray for a picture perfect life that one dreams of.  I would talk about few of my favourites from the book.

The first poem, May The Darkness Elude Away exudes hope of happiness and love after struggling through despair of depression. This poem is a collaborated work of Shraddha and Simran Kaur, who is a poet and a blogger herself. This poem tops the list of my favourites.

I Wish I Could Steal You Back From Time is a poem on lost love. Shraddha has depicted the longing desire of a heart to time travel and get back the lost love. The poem is poignant and the reader can relate to the feelings of a broken heart very closely.

Within Rondeau, the first poem is the best I liked. What happens when love dies? What happens when people simply forget their promises and become strangers to those whom they considered to be their closest and dearest at one point in their life? Well, Shraddha has beautifully answered these through the below verses.

I feel you – a stranger in my house

Though seven promises have tagged us spouse

We promised love, support and care

But not a single moment we share

You stand beside me- oh! Its too rare

Miles of distance and unknown doubts

Look! Life has brought us here.

The tanka on Nostalgia prefers nude lips to shine in the glimmer of past and not forget to rewind from time to time. A great message conveyed here I must say.

In all, the poems are pretty relatable. The author has kept the language easier and depicted the profundity of human emotions very closely. When it comes to poetry, the punctuations play a principal effect and I have found them misplaced at few occasions. Couple of poems did fail holding my attention but considering the fact that this was Shraddha’s debut, there is always room for improvement. The best part about the poems is, even though they are all related to emotions behind smiles, every poem also talks about hope and happiness at the end and hence, the positivity never fades. All poetry lovers should give it a go.

My take – 3 / 5

About the author – Shraddha Singh is a creative writer & lifestyle blogger at Shine-Shraddha.

Buy Link- Amazon

[This is my personal review of the book and all opinions are honest]

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