Old Songs   by: Sharanya Naik Publisher: Self-published with eBookstand, 2003 Price: $13.95, Pages: 72, ISBN: 1589092031 Reviewed by: Sharanya For Press Release (and review): Self-published with eBookstand. Old Songs – a book of poetry and prose by Sharanya Naik ISBN# - 1589092031 72 pages, $13.95 Published by eBookstand.com Sharanya Naik’s contact info: Sharanya@earthlink.net or (973)746-8949 172 Orange Road, Montclair, NJ 07042 Twenty seven poems and one novella – the subject matter and voice are unusual, at least – a departure from the domesticity of much of what is published these days. The poems range from personal narrative to some fairly imaginative retelling of well- known myths – ancient Indian and Greek stories that, in the poems, highlight the trials of contemporary “human-hood”. Read Letter to a Mother about Dionysius, or Oedipus Rant, the sad tale of a mother-lover, or Electra – why didn’t she kill her mother herself? Beehive and The Lord’s Dream are Indian, but perfectly understandable to anyone. Two love poems to a dead father. Many about meditation, growth, love. The novella is called Sita and retells the Indian epic The Ramayana in the voice of its heroine, Sita. This story has never before been told, in fact. It is a leap of imagination to capture the voice of an ancient queen, to set her in her time and place, so foreign to the reader, and yet her story is familiar and important. The end of The Ramayana is not often told, since it brings the glory of the epic down to mundane and somewhat sordid human-ness. But Sita’s story really begins and ends here, and is therefore worth hearing. This is Sharanya Naik’s first publishing venture, a sort of movement of personal experience into the outside world. An immigrant to the USA, she is a perpetual “refusnik”, belonging nowhere – and that goes for schools of poetry as much as geographic location. Mythology is an anchor in the soul of the human – it makes rubbish of man-made borders. But Sharanya works hard at many things, the craft of language being a major focus. She lives in New Jersey, teaches English literature to adolescents, is a mother, and a certified facilitator of Holotropic Breathwork™.