Difficult, intimidating, not for me… Are some of the words that come to mind when one sees a book of poems. I am no different. However, my thoughts changed when I read award-winning designer Prasati Sabari’s debut book of poems titled The Entanglement of Illusions, published by DC Books. The endearing beautiful poems in the collection gently explores identity, love, illusion, and the quiet peace that comes with self-acceptance. Her poems walk us through everyday moments, emotional honesty, and the stillness that allows meaning to unfold naturally. Rooted in simplicity, the book reminds us that poetry does not always come from dramatic events or has to be difficult. Rather, it comes from ordinary events when we pause long enough to truly see it.

The book is divided into four parts: Spectre, Pining, Repose, and Solace. Through these sections, Prasati explores the masks we put on for love, the pain hidden inside the need to belong, and the gentle peace that comes when we stop pretending.

For Prasati, poetry begins in the everyday. “In moments as simple as standing under a shower, sipping my morning black coffee in my favourite corner of the living-room sofa, or in the quiet in-between moments before I go to pick up my daughter from school, the mind softens. When attention is no longer directed outward, something quieter and more truthful emerges.”

It is in these unguarded moments that her writing finds its voice.

One of the most striking ideas in the book is about the ‘masks we wear’, which she talks about in the poem The Mask of Morality. Reflecting on the same, she says, “I believe the most damaging mask is that of relentless goodness — the need to be the kindest, most loving, most agreeable person in the room. Many of us learn to perform virtue in the hope of being accepted, even admired. In that performance, we gradually lose touch with ourselves, mistaking moral perfection for worth and living increasingly in the image we think others prefer, rather than in our own truth.”

Some of her most powerful poems come from the smallest incidents. One such moment stayed with her deeply. Sharing the incident, she says, “Last year, while spending a month in San Jose, I took to long, unhurried walks through its residential streets — calm roads, generous pavements, a life unfolding without urgency. One afternoon, seated in a neighbourhood park, I overheard a brief exchange between a mother and her seven-year-old son. It was not the content of the conversation that stayed with me, but its emotional undercurrent — the quiet need to be acknowledged. That moment, easily missed and quickly forgotten, lingered with me and made me write The Hunger to Be Seen.”

It shows how poetry, for her, is born from attention rather than spectacle.

The book also speaks about how meaning cannot be forced, only received. This has shaped the way Prasati lives and writes. “I am far less impatient with uncertainty than I once was. Both in life and in writing, I have learnt that meaning reveals itself slowly, often when one relinquishes the urge to force clarity or control outcomes.”

This patience with uncertainty becomes one of the quiet strengths of her work.

As you move through each poem, you feel the profound need pause and reflect while soaking in the deeper meaning embedded in them. Wrapped in simple language, the poem are quite thought-provoking, forcing you to look at the ‘ordinary’ and the ‘mundane’ in our lives just a little differently. While the poems leave a lasting impression on us, has the debut also changed how she experiences her own life.

“Yes, profoundly, though quietly. I no longer live with the same fear of being judged or misunderstood. Earlier, that concern shaped many of my responses to the world. Now, I am at ease so long as I am being honest and true to my own being. This is not self-centredness, but a settling — a calmness that comes from letting go of the need to explain or justify oneself. There is a deeper peace in that acceptance, one that arises from loosening the many entanglements we carry. It is the kind of peace the book itself moves towards, and perhaps one that is best understood through reading it.”

This sense of quiet freedom lies at the heart of The Entanglement of Illusions.

Her attention to the ordinary is shaped by classical influences. “The Renaissance poets, in particular, shaped the way I look at everyday human experience. Writers such as William Shakespeare, John Donne, and George Herbert examined love, doubt, faith, and ambition not as abstractions, but as lived and often conflicted realities. They demonstrated that the ordinary, when observed with rigour and sensitivity, can yield enduring truths.”

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What surprised her most while writing the collection was the lack of control. “I began with intention and structure, but the poems steadily drew me into a softer, more vulnerable terrain than I had anticipated. Writing, I realised, was not about mastery but release. It settles me; it brings a quiet order to what feels inwardly scattered. That is why I write — not to impose meaning, but to be freed by the act of paying attention and allowing the work to find its own course.”

And, what does she hope readers take away from her poetry? “I would like them to be kinder to themselves — less exacting, less judgemental. If the poems encourage even a small measure of gentleness towards one’s own imperfections, and an acceptance of life as it is, I would feel they have done their work.”

If her book could offer one gift to the reader, it would be, as Prasati says, “Permission to feel happy — to recognise that being alive today already matters. To be present, to inhabit one’s own life fully, and to attend to one’s work without apology. And, above all, not to allow people or circumstances to diminish the simple, essential act of being oneself.”

With The Entanglement of Illusions, Prasati Sabari offers not answers, but stillness. Not conclusions, but compassion. It is a debut that quietly asks readers to slow down, soften, and meet themselves with honesty and grace.

Book: The Entanglement of Illusions

Author: Prasati Sabari

Publisher: DC Books

Pages: 75

Price: ₹199 (Paperback)