KOZHIKODE: Mani picks up their songs with/Suppressed dreams and pangs/As he sings, the audience/Catches fire; they dance like/Flames in his voice… goes the poem, ‘Kalabhavan Mani and his folk songs’ penned by Thrissur native M.V. Fabiyas, the English teacher at the Maranchery government HSS, near Ponnani. This poem has been published in the latest edition of The literary Hatchet magazine published from Massachusetts, USA.
The magazine has more than 100 pages, and is published three times a year with a focus on poetry, short fiction, humour, interviews and reviews from authors across the world. The poem portrays Mani's folk song as the developing flesh in a black oyster at the bottom of poverty. The popularity Mani gained through his songs has been described as.
“A village virgin/Blushes and blooms/In the old lantern light/In his folk song”
Fabiyas’s poems were published in literary magazines of seven countries in a short span of period. They include the internationally acclaimed literary magazine, 'Westerly', a publication of the University of Western Australia and in the publication of Liverpool's John Moores University in UK.
Fabiyas had the rare distinction of his poetry getting displayed at selected locations of Liverpool city. “Instead of the reel image of Kalabhavan Mani, I preferred to focus on his singing, which perfectly struck a chord with rural masses,” says Fabiyas.
