In His Debut, A Young Kashmiri Poet Gives Grief Gentle Form

(MENAFN- Kashmir Observer)
Book cover

By Aubaid Akhoon

You don't expect a debut poetry book to feel this intimate. The Inner Voice by Imbisat Tareen reads like a journal cracked open in trust. The poems don't demand your attention. They don't try to impress. Instead, they invite you to sit down and listen. And once you do, it's hard to walk away.

Tareen, a young poet from Kashmir, isn't here to dazzle. His verses are often delicate, always sincere. There's no posturing. No clever metaphors to untangle. Just straight, simple lines drawn from the chest.

“I am the moon,” he writes,“but tonight, even I don't shine.” That's from The Diamond in the Dark Night - one of several poems that carry the ache of growing up, of looking for light when all you feel is fog.

You won't find literary games here. This is poetry stripped bare. And that's exactly what makes it work.

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Tareen's world is shaped by love, grief, longing and a restless search for meaning. In Parents, he writes,“You gave me roots / and I forgot to bloom.” The lines aren't polished, but they don't need to be. The emotion is sharp enough. He says what many feel but can't name.

The book doesn't shout its Kashmiri roots, but they're there in every line. Snow, rivers, mountains aren't just landscapes. They're metaphors for memory, distance, and things left unsaid. Tareen doesn't name politics, but the tension hums under the page. In 'In a Cage', he writes,“The sky is open / but my wings won't move.” It's subtle, but unmistakable.

That's the power of his writing. He lets you fill in the blanks. He doesn't spell out the pain. He lets you feel it.

The poems aren't flawless. Some stumble. A few lines feel unfinished, like thoughts paused mid-air. But even that gives the book a strange kind of honesty. You sense a young poet still finding his voice, not pretending he already has it. That's rare, and refreshing.

What the book lacks in polish, it makes up for in presence. It's not poetry for classrooms or competitions. It's for bus rides, hospital waiting rooms, cold evenings when everything hurts a little more than it should.

And maybe that's why it matters. In a literary world full of noise, The Inner Voice feels like a silent room. It doesn't perform. It listens.

This isn't just a young bard's success story. It's a reminder - that even in silence, even in small towns and overlooked classrooms, voices are blooming. And some of them carry truth.

Tareen's debut may not change the poetry world. But it might just reach the one reader who needs it most.

And that's enough.

Aubaid Akhoon is a columnist, motivational speaker, and associate editor based in Kashmir.

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