A Life in Verse: Examining Satendra Nandan’s Monumental Collected Poems (1975–2025)

During a recent trip to Newcastle, NSW, I stumbled upon a second-hand book shop on the main street in Hamilton. The bookshop had new, second hand, and a rare collection of books. Amongst piles and endless shelves of books, I found the complete works of poetry by William Wordsworth, T. S. Eliot, W. B. Yates, and a personal favourite Robert Frost. Their poetry has been published in different places but having a collection of completed works makes it readily accessible for a reader to have almost every work written by the poet. Satendra Nandan’s latest book POEMS - 1975-2025: Waves in the Wounded Sea, is the first volume of its kind by a Fijian-Australasian writer of Indian indenture heritage. It is his complete works of poetry spanning five decades of being a literary mastermind. Nandan’s ability to connect words and emotions to real situations is utterly unimaginable. He does it with such ease and eloquence, while gripping the reader’s attention profusely.