thesilkroadtoday
BOOK REVIEW BY ALESSANDRA VINOTTO Misna Chanu’s Fifth Poetry Book “Maybe This Is Not a Goodbye” is a hug for those who love beyond Distance, Time, and Space.
Misna Chanu’s Poetry Book “Maybe This Is Not a Goodbye” is a hug for those who love beyond distance – Beautiful, tender and healing.
I just finished “Maybe This Is Not a Goodbye” by Misna Chanu and I closed the last page with tears in my eyes and a peaceful smile. Misna Chanu is a bilingual (English and Manipuri) poet, children’s writer, translator and editor from India.
This is her fifth poetry collection, the most intimate after “The Silent Whispers”, and it is a small miracle of sweetness and sensitivity. It’s not a sad book at all, as the title might suggest. It’s a book about love that stays even when everything changes.
Misna has the rare gift of putting into words what we have all felt at least once: a love suspended between nostalgia and tenderness, a memory that warms your heart and takes your breath away, and a letting go that hurts but is also a profound form of love.
Her writing is light as a breath but goes straight to the heart. She doesn’t tell you what to do. She does something much more precious: she makes you feel understood, less alone, and welcomed.
Every poem is a different shade of love: unconditional love, everyday love that becomes memory, and the love we thought was over that has simply changed form and become eternal.
The message in the title is of infinite sweetness: perhaps it is not really a goodbye. Some bonds transcend time and distance. They remain inside us like a light left on.
Maybe this is not a Goodbye
For I still hold you tight
Within my heart!
Maybe,
This is only the departure
For The shallow beings
Of the Earth!
But I know I have loved you deep,
My love!
• Misna Chanu
This is a book to keep on your nightstand, to reread whenever your heart needs to feel lighter, and to gift to someone going through a delicate moment.
If you have ever loved deeply, you will love this book.
By, Alessandra Vinotto
An international visual artist, film director, and poet
Genova, Italy
Bio of the Reviewer:
Alessandra Vinotto is an international visual artist, film director, and poet. A pioneer in stereoscopic 3D, she is a multi-award-winning filmmaker whose work has been featured at the Venice Biennale, the Sundance Film Festival, and major international exhibitions. She is the author of several photo-poetry books translated into multiple languages.
Title: Maybe This Is Not a Goodbye
Author: Misna Chanu
Published via KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing), Amazon
ISBN: 9798310015425
Year: February, 2025
Formats: Available in print (paperback) and electronic (eBook) editions.
Price: USD 4.5 (for Paperback), USD 1.5 (For eBook),
Free Reading on kindleunlimited
