#114: Monday Musings
On finding comfort and resilience in art and poetry
Art by Geneviève Daël
Anatomy by Adi Keissar
Translated from Hebrew by Ayelet Tsabari
Everyone always speaks of the heart.
But what about the kidneys?
Don’t they know how to love?
And the liver?
Didn’t all the chocolate words
that were spoken to us melt in it?
And the fingernails,
don’t they bloom like flowers
when the blood says spring?
And don’t the bowels hold
all the words that were hurled at us
like heavy stones?
Don’t the lungs remember
the moment
they chose us
from all the people in the world?
And the navel, doesn’t it feel
how they cut the cord
and we were torn from the person
we once lived in
and lives inside us?
Everyone always speaks of the heart.
Other wonderful poems worth reading this week:
1. Us Three by Layla Linnard (age 11)
from 2020 Rattle Young Poets Anthology
I liked it a few months ago
It was just us three
There was no sharing my room
There was no screaming baby
I at least slept when
It was just us three
It was just us three
I at least slept when
There was no screaming baby
There was no sharing my room
It was just us three
I liked it a few months ago
2. Boats by Cyril Wong
Darling, there are just as many ways
of saying goodbye as there are ways
of letting you go. The boat is narrow
like the width of my heart after
impossible loss, cruel resignation;
this heart you ride in. Love, if this is how
you choose to leave me let me let you.
3. I Worried by Mary Oliver
I worried a lot. Will the garden grow, will the rivers
flow in the right direction, will the earth turn
as it was taught, and if not how shall
I correct it?
Was I right, was I wrong, will I be forgiven,
can I do better?
Will I ever be able to sing, even the sparrows
can do it and I am, well,
hopeless.
Is my eyesight fading or am I just imagining it,
am I going to get rheumatism,
lockjaw, dementia?
Finally I saw that worrying had come to nothing.
And gave it up. And took my old body
and went out into the morning,
and sang.
Recommended Listening:
Khobs - Issam Hajali (from Ramy, which is SUCH a brilliant show. Also, I think I'm in love love with this song, which I can't stop looping. Also worth reading: Issam Hajali’s Arabic Jazz LP Was Written Against the Backdrop of Civil War)
Links of the Week:
Don't think of a Pink Elephant (must watch)
Meet the postcard girls (My initiative Chitthi Exchange got featured in The Hindu on World Postcard Day. Have you signed up for a penpal yet? Fill the form today.)
This is my newsletter #10: Muskaan Palod
Muskaan Palod took over yesterday’s tenth edition of This is my newsletter, to talk about poetry, mental health and resilience. Read her newsletter here.
She runs a very well-curated poetry newsletter Poetry Mixtape, and recently put together a Dalit Poetry edition (Trigger Warning), which makes for essential reading.
New on the website:
Mid September already
Half the battle over
Another year of endless paddy strings
Dormant in countless drops.
Drops forever waking up Komola
In dreamt hisses of salinity
The taste in which her eyes
Would await cataclysm."
-from The Dialogue of Deluge by Adrija Chatterjee
I'm proud to present 2 poems on Climate Change by Adrija Chatterjee, with commissioned artworks by Anjali Menon, who runs Six Impossible Things.
2. “I am working with a talented team to create an animated series titled Animate Her. This project is supported by the British Council’s Creating Heroines programme and features a group of exceptional women living and working in Sri Lanka.” -Sri Lankan animator and illustrator Irushi Tennekoon
3. #TAPTOBER2020 Day 1-5
Click each word prompt below to see the curated artworks from each day:
Day 1: HAIRY (Artwork by Aakruthi)
Day 2: ISOLATION (Artwork by Rohini Kejriwal)
Day 3: SUNDAY (Artwork by Nysa)
Day 4: HOPE (Artwork by Akanksha Fulzele)
Day 5: WILDFLOWER (Artwork by Mridula Divakar)
Feel free to respond to this email with any questions, thoughts and reflections you'd like to share. I’ll end today’s edition with a quote that really resonated with me:
“The past is a place of reference, not a place of residence.”
-Roy T. Bennett
Until next time,
Rohini
The Alipore Post is on Instagram + I run a Website with crowdsourced poetry, art and photography and the occasional interview.
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