“Hello!”, said Rayan
Poet of Midnight Cries sends reels to Trump and throws Sunflowers in the Air
Hello Book
We wanted to use ‘hello book’ instead of ‘debut’ or ‘first’ book for some time and was ruminating on this term. And this is when we met Rayan Farooq, a good intern at Pehchaan The Street School; a girl who can send reels to the President when she is in her weird mood but her beauty can be seen when she throws flowers in air, as if checking whether the flowers turns into butterfly and hover here and there. Sunflowers.
However, Rayan Farooq became a blessing, when we came to know she has published her one and only book at the age of fourteen. Now, we can use Hello Book of Rayan, in that sense she appeared like a blessing.
Rayan published her first book at the age of fourteen which titled ‘Midnight Cries’, we have read her book and the poems are catchy, interesting, relative; in short, the poems are as the poems should be aligning with the life of humans. The format and images can hinder reading experience because some pages consists two or three poems and images are not set properly however, it can also provide raw and real experience of reading. Midnight Cries is a book that is for reading because the verses Rayan’s little hands has weaved are great in every possible way.
The Cover & Theme
She mentioned how one can leave scratch on diamonds due to loneliness and personal losses:
She mentioned how frozen someone can be:
3. She weaved how people remain puzzled:
4. She jotted the feeling of people who feel as if they have been covered by rocks:
5. Her book talks about the tiny shower of love someone need to uncover themself:
Rayan about her book:
Midnight Cries is the hello book of Rayan Farooq trying to navigate through fake friendships, traumas and rejections by taking nature as support in the early teenage phase. It is not just a book but a soul scrapbook herein the poet has scratched not just just with her nails but also with her feelings. The poet often talks about being a poet in poems such as- ‘A poet’, ‘Poet at the age of 14’, ‘No longer poetry?’ and others. She wears her identity like a crown. It is a quite random set of poems- obviously because it was authored by a 14 year old. Most poems have a good rhyming pattern and only few are in free verse. The book takes the readers on a rollercoaster of emotions wherein some poems are motivating enough and some scream anxiety. The tone of most of the poems is quite casual.
Major factors that affected the writing of the book were- the poet’s solo living years, lockdown period and peak of friendships. Echoes of PTSD and anxiety have been weaved into poems that came straight from her like- ‘A letter to my younger self’, ‘Emptiness and nothingness’, ‘What even imagination defies’. These are the poems every soul in search of peace would relate to.
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