‘108 POEMS’: An exploration of thoughts and emotions in various volumes

Literature, as we know, is a great way of expressing events, ideas, or feelings, and it is a form of art truly dedicated to a reader; to grasp the essence of the writing from where the writer has collected the words and from where the story-telling is coming. And among the various genres of literature, poetry is considered the vaguest of all, yet it is the simplest form of expression in my view. As a reader and writer of poems myself, it fascinates me when someone truly expresses the depth of his/her ideas or captures the gut feelings in a work of art in just a few verses. And written in simple language, some poems are sincere, emotional, and powerful as well. Such poems are timeless and astounding to anyone who can relate the words with the joys and heartbreaks of life. And just recently, I came across the same kinds of poems I just talked about. The poems are from the different volumes of the book titled ‘108 POEMS’ by Dr. Yam Bahadur Roka.

Only recently, the poet has published 6 volumes of books, making a total of 8 volumes of a collection of poems each containing 108 poems. He had published volumes 1 and 2 a few years back and now he has published volumes 3 to 8 all at once. And with publishing these volumes, he has announced that he will publish two more volumes of '108 POEMS' in the coming days. He has also stated the meaning behind the title of the book in the Preface of each volume. He has stated that he chose to put 108 poems in each book and also the title as ‘108 POEMS’ because of the scientific and religious significance of the number 108, which he has elaborated further with many details. He has also mentioned that due to COVID, he had not gotten an opportunity to publish the Volumes, thus we get to read six new Volumes all at once. All the Volumes have been published by Phoenix Books.