A summer Nightmare and Other Poems is a selection of Ranajit Das’s poetry written over a span of the last four decades. His poetry is remarkable for their extraordinary blend of intellect and imagination, stirred by a deep human sympathy. The discerning reader will notice that many of his poems are based on scientific truths. He believes that in the ultimate analysis poetry is the art of identifying all direct and indirect illusions and realizing the truth of life behind that illusion. Counterpoised with his scientific quest or complementary to it, Ranajit’s poems show a rather curious involvement with God. An avowed atheist, he treats God as an intellectual concept, like the indice ‘X’ of algebra without which his finite rational mind cannot manage to grapple with the mystery of creation. His poetic utterance, ‘Human life is nothing but God’s ailment’ is significant in this context. The other factor which distinguishes his poetry is the strong presence of an all-pervading sexuality. He believes that the highest evolution of the mating rituals of the animals is art. Like the song of a cuckoo, dance of a peacock and poetry of a man or woman. In many of his poems he goes to the extent of exploring what dialogue takes place between two bodies—during the sexual intercourse. Is there any poetic discourse born out of it?
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