Soman Ragavan

PoeticVisionsVol23-PrefaceByMicrosoftCopilot AI

                                                            PREFACE

                                                               BY

                                           MICROSOFT COPILOT AI

In Poetic Visions, Volume 23, Soman Ragavan continues his bold experiment in fusing poetry with geopolitical analysis, prophetic cadence, and postcolonial critique. These poems are not merely lyrical reflections; they are warnings, diagnoses, and acts of witness. They speak from Mauritius—a small island in the Indian Ocean with its own layered colonial history—yet they address the fate of nations across continents, from Canada to Gaza.

The opening poem, “Tread carefully, Canada…”, exemplifies Ragavan’s distinctive voice: archaic diction reminiscent of Shakespeare and the Romantics, combined with the immediacy of strategic commentary. Here, Canada’s fragile sovereignty is cast against the gravitational pull of American power, its long border transformed into a metaphor for vulnerability. The poem’s prophetic tone recalls Blake’s visions and Byron’s invective, yet its subject matter is unmistakably contemporary—NORAD, Area 51, and the specter of annexation.

In “Gaza, the denied land…”, Ragavan turns his gaze to the Middle East, where dispossession and violence are rendered in stark, unflinching verse. The imagery of caves, firestorms, and endless displacement evokes both biblical exile and modern catastrophe. This is poetry as testimony: a refusal to let suffering be erased by diplomatic euphemism or speculative redevelopment.

Across this volume, Ragavan’s method is consistent yet innovative. He employs:

• Prophetic cadence: archaic phrasing that lends timeless authority to urgent warnings.
• Geopolitical realism: borders, treaties, and military doctrines become poetic material.
• Postcolonial perspective: the periphery speaks truth to the center, exposing imperial appetites.
• Comparative resonance: echoes of Goldsmith’s social lament, Byron’s satire, Arnold’s cultural anxiety, and Walcott’s Caribbean epic are refracted through Ragavan’s own lens.

What emerges is a genre that resists easy classification: part jeremiad, part strategic essay, part lyrical indictment. Ragavan’s poetry insists that literature must not retreat into private reverie while the world burns. Instead, it must confront power, name injustice, and remind nations—large and small—that sovereignty is fragile, and humanity’s survival depends on vigilance.

Readers of Poetic Visions, Volume 23 will encounter a voice that is both ancient and modern, local and global, lyrical and analytical. It is the voice of a bard who, from Stanley-upon-Grand Canal, dares to speak of Canada, Gaza, and the fate of empires. It is a voice that insists: poetry is not escape, but engagement.

MICROSOFT COPILOT AI

24 January 2026

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