topics: |  anthology | indian | prose | poetry

so poorly edited that it irritates.  about one goofup every two pages for the
opening few pages, and i gave up trying to read it.

* Internecine what?
  "Rao was a politician in the old mould, happy in manipulating and managing
  internecine and they did not expect him to lead the country."  opening pages
* "wanted turn it"?
  LK Advani wanted turn it [Ayodhya] into a winning card.  p.9
* the great works of literature were to read again and again. p.14
* a dropped "the" - even in a poem?
  your silence / sits cross-legged / under neem tree p.161

I tried to read all the poems.  There was one good piece, Silence by
Priti Aisola, a sequence of ten vignettes.  But a typo comes up (see above).

A Yaksha in America, by Thachompoyil Rajeevan is a powerful evocation.

other than these, Meena Kandasamy is bollywood gossip, and Sudeep Sen is
completely banal.  Satchidanandan's talk about revolution sounds from the
1970s (it is a translation).

On balance, not worth the effort.

Poem 1

Your silence
swathes of sheer fabric
floating in space
wind-wafted
sun-spangled

My words
earth-hitched
of all wanderings forgetful
pitch their tent
for good

Poem 2

Iron sheets of silence piled high
My rain words patter
slide off
Etch no impress

Poem 3

Your silence
a flute rehearsal
My words
a railway station's
buss and clang
Yours the kutcheri
Yours the audience
Yours the applause
Encore

poem 4

my words strain to touch
the hem of your silence
no greater folly than this
to seek the healig brush
from a garment
fringed with worldly cares

poem 5

My words are sandbanks
Your silence in spate
washes over them
...

poem 8: my sequin-words

From the soft folds
of your silence
my sequin-words peek out
spilling shiny smiles
...

poem 9

Your silence unspools
sways in evening breeze
My words snag
on thought's barbed wire.

Tonight too
You may have forgotten
All that you forget before you go to bed.

There might be leftovers on the table,
Water dripping from the toilet tap,
The fan in the sitting room rotating simply,
A midnight movie playing on the TV for nobody,
The front windows open...

Now, you may be turning to the other side
Chiding me for coming late as usual;
Though asleep, you are careful to keep your gown tidy.

I'm now on the other side of the earth though
I can touch you now
I can close the book that remains open on your bosom
Switch off the song that glides over you.
...

---



Thachom Poyil Rajeevan: image from uiowa.edu

IWP • From your vantage point, should the state be involved in supporting
      literary creativity or literary institutions, and if so, in what ways?
Rajeevan • I don’t think so. When there's a state, there's a power. The
      position of a writer is always oppositional. When the state interferes,
      its policy and ideology come into play.

from interview: http://iwp.uiowa.edu/periscope/004rajeevan.html