Speakers in S. Rupsha Mitra’s Smoked Frames submerge themselves into intense experiences, questing to understand their true selves beneath waves of devotion. The collection begins with journeys into the physical and emotional self, where we “dream the fetish, to be wholesome, to grasp things together, piecemeal, not smitten by delirium or defences” (Self-Portrait As Navigating Consciousness). Others among the first few pieces explore the heady energy of youth (Springs) and the awkwardness we often feel within our physical bodies (Alien Skin). Mitra finds a sense of peace within her body with time, though, comparing the experience to taking comfort from a religious practice. She becomes able to accept and integrate her body into her whole being. Later, Mitra depicts mermaids as mythologized in various global cultures. Usually half woman and half sea creature, a mermaid straddles (or swims across) the two worlds, and so to be at home in and proud of one’s mermaid existence means being content as a hybrid who defies easy categorization. And Mitra’s mermaids are strong, lively, and confident: Suvanamachha, the Asian Mermaid enjoys pure love with the god Hanuman and blesses the entire world, while Melusine, the European Medieval Mermaid has “free pinions of pride” and “breathes of emancipation.” The poems following delve within the intricacies of the body and its nervous system, the physical underpinnings of our experience of the world. In "Knowledge of the Body", the speaker reflects that she has wronged her physical self through being overly critical and now wishes to “to strip the skin off the ribs and peer at its striking beginnings” and “flourish in this writhing extravagance.” She later applies this deep curiosity to psychology as well in "The Gestalt of Memory" and in "Defence Mechanisms", where she speculates on the workings of the ego she has sought to transcend. Within the book’s final section, Mitra’s speakers journey to sites of historical and religious significance in India and engage in more traditional religious practices. We reflect on the goddess of wisdom, Saraswati, during a puja ceremony, and enter the golden temple of Amritsar, shoes off out of respect. Yet this section also includes the speakers’ personal and family memories and heritage. In Lost in Murshidabad, she listens again to her parents’ recounting of their love story: “an unconditional love that embalms us in the midst of history.” In A Return at Saraswati Pujo, she recollects an argument that became very vulgar before apologies and resolution, but her anger dissipates as she observes sunlight and is “forced to admit that the world is very beautiful.” The titular piece, “Smoked Frames” resides near the end of the collection, among these remembrances of cultural and personal history. It deals with framed photographs, so many and so old that they have been put away in drawers and the exact moment of each scene forgotten. Mitra transcends the personal here and moves to a broader meditation on where and how we will find truth: “would it come as a mystic in orange robes…or as the mad whirlwind of samsara? … or as emancipation from wild enjambments?” She speculates on the divine being “distant yet so close, quite near, within me, (yet unseen within)” in an echo that calls back to the prior pieces on probing the interior of our bodies and the depths of our feelings and psychology. Once again, she is seeking out her truest fundamental self by embracing and accepting the mystery of everything she sees and experiences. S.Rupsha Mitra’s Smoked Frames collection offers us heady thoughts and reflections through the elevated languages of science, courtly romance, and spirituality. The poems become meditations on the search for how to love ourselves and each other through seeking out and understanding ourselves. S. Rupsha Mitra's Smoked Frames can be ordered here.
