#109: a whole lot of poetry
Art by Hans Vandekerckhove
Talking to Grief by Denise Levertov
Ah, grief, I should not treat you
like a homeless dog
who comes to the back door
for a crust, for a meatless bone.
I should trust you.
I should coax you
into the house and give you
your own corner,
a worn mat to lie on,
your own water dish.
You think I don’t know you’ve been living
under my porch.
You long for your real place to be readied
before winter comes. You need
your name,
your collar and tag. You need
the right to warn off intruders,
to consider my house your own
and me your person
and yourself
my own dog.
Some more poems I recommend reading:
"Toward the end of August I begin to dream about fall, how
this place will empty of people, the air will get cold and
leaves begin to turn. Everything will quiet down, everything
will become a skeleton of its summer self." -from Toward the End of August by David Budbill
"There will be moments in this life where you will stand somewhere holy and ask
The hollows in the air if it will ever leave you, the faint cries in your dreams that never
Seem to cease, the sudden twinge in your chest that sees you writhing crippled on the floor,
Still, when the next boy asks you if you ever want to be a mother, you almost say
You already are."
-from To Be Emptied by Deeksha Verender
"And the neighbour's cat is definitely
Better off.
There's always enough milk,
The sun is always shining,
And there are always enough rats
To get by on
Through these days,
Through this life." -from Despair by Nupur Parik "This regime feeds on my thinking and erodes it along its edges.
I always think or I should say,
I wonder if the regime is stupider
or the virus! One of them repeats itself
constantly where thoughts become in the manner of drill exercises. After all
is done and the pants are up,
I try to gather all the crumbs and watch them decay.
What else is synesthetic and metamorphosing than decaying matter.
So, I chose to stuff the crumbs in bags of words and call it poetry." -This regime by Misria Shaik Ali
"The northern lights
put on a show in the polar sky.
They pranced,
they danced, kept us entranced, a whirlwind up high.
The colours streamed
in blues and greens
with rosy red rays."
-Kalli Dakos (from The Earth Carer's Guide to Climate Change, part of collaboration with Katha Books)
And a perfect ending to Women in Translation Month with Prof. Smita Agarwal's English to Hindi translation of Death by Eunice de Souza:
Death by Eunice de Souza (Original poem)
Under the dusty mango tree
ceremonial shaving of heads.
The newly bald make fun of each other.
The newly dead is an unknown quality
urged on by the tuneless singing of the women
and men in white standing their ground
मृत्यु: यूनिस डी सूज़ा (Translated to Hindi)
अनुवाद : स्मिता अग्रवाल
धूल से सने आम के वृक्ष के नीचे
मुण्डन अनुष्ठान।
नये गंजे एक दूसरे की मज़ाक उड़ाते हैं।
नया मरा , एक अन्जान संख्या है
जिससे आग्रह कर रहे हैं
स्त्रियों का बेसुरा गायन
और , सफ़ेद-पोश पुरुष
अपने पैरों तले , ज़मीन दबोचे ...
Recommended Listening:
Danza Lucumi - Ernesto Lecuona
All For You - Damien Jurado (Live)
Links of the Week:
Stock market chart landscapes: Stoxart
16 medical illustrators doing groundbreaking work
Explore Frida Kahlo’s ‘Casa Azul’ Through a Fascinating Virtual Museum Tour
Read: Fever in the Woods
"I claimed a delicious patch of grass under the generous and thoughtful November sunlight. Before I knew it, I had created my home in the grass. Spending hours and hours in parks doing absolutely nothing is hands down my most favorite thing when I travel, followed by aimless walking, followed by visiting cemeteries! The buildings surrounding the park slowly started disappearing for me. The jangling sounds of the city transformed into poetry of tranquility." -from Payal Khandelwal's curation from last week's This is my newsletter #5. Payal runs the super inspiring The Floating Magazine and ftmstudio. Go check it out :)
Instagram Finds:
Interview: Daniel Ablitt
"I think we all have a deep rooted connection to nature. We've just become very good at cancelling it out with concrete and noise! The recent lockdown in the UK has for me, enhanced the connection with the natural world. With no restaurants, theatres, nightlife etc. to be distracted by, I feel like I'm seeing green for the first time again."
-Daniel Ablitt
Read my full interview with Daniel here. :)
Before I end this newsletter, I'd love to leave you with a few questions that I've been pondering about and doodled last night. :)
One more question: Should I create a downloadable PDF for all the website content? Or do you end up reading it via the newsletter? Feel free to reply with a Yes/No! :)
Have a good week ahead! :)
-Rohini
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