Mind Verses

Deena Mehjabeen writes intense personal poetry exploring her life, family and romantic relationships, yet manages to make her poems universal. Despite Bangladesh being five thousand miles from Britain, its culture very different, I could easily identify with Mehjabeen's grief and longing, anger and love. In several of her poems such as Evil and Who Gave You The Right? she speaks for women everywhere. In Missing You she portrays searing grief on the death of her grandfather. Paradox and Silence could have been written about me!

I frequently felt quite privileged to be allowed such emotional closeness through this poetry to a woman I will probably never meet. Not all the poems spoke to me as strongly and there is perhaps too much theme repetition at times, but I am certainly glad to have discovered Mehjabeen's writing in this strong collection.