Highlights:
Book: If only words could breathe
Author Name: Jazz G. Sethi
Genre: Poetry
In If only words could breathe, 21-year-old Jazz Sethi wonderfully captures our deepest desires, innermost fears and vulnerable feelings through musings, haikus and prose poems that you wish the book was indeed a breathing human you could call as a good friend.
In life, we experience all kinds of emotions ranging from love to longing and grief. We are constantly looking for love at different places and times. Jazz Sethi’s urge to record these intense emotions as and when they occur through words is what led to this beautiful collection of writings. These are universal. We share the same fears and feel the same feelings as the author. It is not surprising that the author thoughtfully included ‘Find your stories in my stories’ on the cover as it is just what it implies. We truly do find our stories in her stories.
While love is the major theme that runs through this collection of poetry, Jazz Sethi’s musings on self-love, city life and travel are bound to resonate with us. As readers, we wonder how such complex emotions could be put into simple musings that strike a chord.
Above all, what makes this truly unique is each piece of writing is titled after a time that truly captures the author’s feelings at that particular point of time.
Excerpt:
11:12 am
Heartbreak is not always like the sad love poetry you keep reading. It’s not beautifully wrapped in iambic parameter or dressed in meticulous metaphors.
Sometimes,
It’s the middle of the afternoon, when your thoughts are vacant. That’s the time it hits the most.
You feel a black hole form in your gut, and the void is so large, that no amount of closure can fill it.
And every tear you shed is a part of your soul slowly melting away.
And nothing, and no one, can ever snitch it back together the same.
4:00 pm
When you leave a place, you aren’t only leaving behind the lights and the memories and the people you have come to love. You are also leaving behind yourself. The way you use to walk, the way your intellect was endless and the way you were truly fearless. That’s the part that truly hurts – because you know you can never be that exact same person again.
Why we loved it:
If only words could breathe is a poetry book that truly connects with us all. There are emotions and feelings that we do not manage to express in words. As a result, they end up forgotten and buried. But, Jazz Sethi takes care to ensure that these complex emotions blossom into words. The book is divided into ten segments with each dedicated to an emotion. From self-love to self-evident truths we discover in ‘Tell me your truth’ to raw intense emotions that occur late night in ‘2 AM Musings’.
There is a positivity that runs through the book that is sure to leave the readers inspired and comforted. You indeed feel that these are the words of a dear friend you would like to hear every now and then to reassure ourselves that life indeed is beautiful and it would be a crime to kill our hopes. While we do yearn for love to be reciprocated, Jazz Sethi assures that it is not the end of the world when we are not loved back. That said, she also wants us to not move away from these emotions of grief as what makes us strong again is nothing but our vulnerability itself.
This is a book that is bound to be your go-to friend to course through your teenage years and twenties. It is sure to comfort you when you feel down through Jazz Sethi’s reassuring words.
Trivia: The foreword is written by Abhijat Joshi, screenwriter of PK, Lage Raho Munnabhai, 3 Idiots. He begins his foreword with: ‘It is a secret not shared with anyone yet. The name of the female protagonist in the film PK – Jaggu – was inspired by Jazz.’
You’ll love it if:
You enjoy books like Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, poetry books by Lang Leav, Rupi Kaur and the works of spoken word poet Sarah Kay.
You enjoy movies like Dead Poets Society, Good Will Hunting, Dear Zindagi, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, Dil Chahta Hai and Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani.
Do let us know in the comments if you have read similar books. You can check the book on Amazon here!