CogVerse, though an anthology of poems, was conceived to work as a coherent whole. The four segments in the book work like cogs of the machine--coming together when required, to function with a certain assigned purpose.

The first segment Butterfingers written as a set of twenty very short poems, is chaotic in terms of the time and space the verses inhabit. Elsewhere these short verses intervene like lubricant between the longer poems of the other segments connecting, aligning and therefore manufacturing a certain synergy that makes the machine.

The second segment, the eponymous CogVerse is an attempt at theory, may be even a half hearted attempt at a discursive on the cogs. In a way, this set works as the heart or the spiritual core of the collection.

The third segment- Freedom is a box-is the meandering semi-autobiographical narrative that comes alive when read with parts from other segments. Designed to be operatic and freewheeling, this is the origin of the whole collection. The last segment of the collection, Rebellion, self-declaredly an encore, is an editorial denouement of the anthology more than anything else.

Even though autobiographical in its core, CogVerse is part-meditation part-rant at the completely mechanical nature of our lives. The infuriating part is that we still have something organic left and that something is refusing to die. Should we rather become completely mechanical since it is not possible to be completely human any more, that’s the question!

It has been published by Paperwall publishing (Aug 2022)

Author bio:
Vivekanand Selvaraj writes in English and Tamil. His work has appeared in Spittoon monthly, The Bombay Literary Magazine, Nether Quarterly ( Revival issue), Bengaluru Review, Poetry at Sangam, Aainanagar, Sonic Boom, Vayavya and The Freedom Review. He is also an amateur theatre enthusiast, having written and staged quite a few of them. He is a diplomat currently stationed at Beijing (as First Secretary in Embassy of India )