Saleem Peeradina is one of the most important Indian poets writing in the English language. In ‘Final Cut’, his fifth collection, the poet’s focus is turned towards the beauty that lies below the surface of the everyday; the extraordinary hiding in the ordinary. These poems are hymns of praise - to birds, to objects, to fruits and to our own human bodies, intently recounting the character and history of each. In time, items as mundane as a sparrow, a stapler or an orange take on the appearance of wondrous gifts. These meditations are joined by monologues, the remarkable yet unremarkable stories of characters encountered by the poet in India, Michigan and beyond. This is the work of a master of language; a self-proclaimed ‘participant-observer’, set to delight a new generation of poetry readers with this enthralling collection.
