A review by dhiyanah
The Altar of The Only World by Sharanya Manivannan

5.0

Light and dark meet in these poems to reestablish wholeness between opposing forces. Love lives with displacement, transmuting grief into healing and redemption. Both Inanna as Ishtar the morning and evening star, and Lucifer as Morning Star link us to Venus, goddess of love, as well as the planet whose astrological body informs in us the ways we connect and express intimacy. These mythological and symbolic narratives act as checkpoints in the navigational map of ‘The Altar of the Only World.’ Along the way, Sita also finds Surpanakha and Draupadi for us. The collective presence of these archetypes of longing and unbelonging are felt in symbolism, imagery, and language that is sublime and cosmic - eager to be traced and retraced like Ariadne’s thread deep into each poem where we perhaps might hear our own shadow’s voice reverberating through.

Read my full review of "The Altar of the Only World" here:

https://www.bydhiyanah.com/blog/2018/8/7/remember-me-in-mud