The Unknown Poets Series: Arisha Rozaidee

Arisha Rozaidee’s third literary work comes in the form of a zine. This is part of her initiatives to make her books affordable and easy to access for the friends and anyone who is interested in buying her works.

At a price of RM 10, the zine is considerably affordable compared to other books in the bookstores which sometimes makes the readers think twice before buying. This idea of hers is not foreign as I can recall her second work in the form of a chapbook which is also economical and not too expensive for the readers.

“The Unknown Poets Series: Arisha Rozaidee” lingers around the daily life themes and tropes such as death, motherly love, secrets, love, family and so many more. Not only that, she tackles them in a such brilliant and unconventional way.

The poem “Home of the Condemned” is a personal favourite of mine with its “Hell was so hot so the devil invited the cool kids.” sentence etching a strong mark into my mind.

Accepting our flaws and imperfections should be ingrained in our mind as they are fascinating as it was told by one of the short stories inside the zine simply entitled, “Imperfect”.

Moreover, from “A Letter”, Death is personified as someone who is sweet and endearing to us, constantly visiting us since we were born and is there through the stages of life until we are ready to go into the arms of Death. “A Letter” captures the idea of death as someone who comforts us, and it ends with “Death is an expected guest- their presence should be welcomed, and the food should be ready on the table.”

The 30-pages zine is definitely a creative work and worth reading countless times as to remind us just what it feels like being a human. It worth noting that the zine can be read in less than an hour and very portable.

I highly recommend “The Unknown Poets Series: Arisha Rozaidee” to everyone as it is easy to understand, and I feel that the content within the book is really identifiable with each one of us. The approaches to the tropes were quite refreshing and interesting to me.

Overall, it is well written new perspectives on the theme of life, love, family et cetera and it makes one good addition to the shelves of poetry books.

Publisher: Off Publishing Sdn. Bhd.