#65 - dispatch from alipore
Art by Michael Pontieri (read my interview with him here)
Waiting For a Poem by Luljeta Lleshanaku
Translated by Henry Israeli and Shpresa Qatipi
I’m waiting for a poem,
something rough, not elaborate or out of control,
something undisturbed by curses, a white raven
released from darkness.
Words that come naturally, without aiming at anything,
a bullet without a target,
warning shots to the sky
in newly occupied lands.
A poem that will well up in my chest
and until it arrives
I will listen to my children fighting in the next room
and cast my gaze down at the table
at an empty glass of milk
with a trace of white along its rim
my throat wrapped in silver
a napkin in a napkin ring
waiting for late guests to arrive. . . .
Other poems I read this week:
"Everything here is small, near, accessible.
I can press volcanoes with my fingertip,
stroke the poles without thick mittens,
I can with a single glance
encompass every desert
with the river lying just beside it.
A few trees stand for ancient forests,
you couldn’t lose your way among them" -from Map by Wislawa Szymborska "You know how, after it rains,
my father told me one August afternoon
when I struggled with something
hurtful my best friend had said,
how worms come out and
crawl all over the sidewalk
and it stays a big mess
a long time after it’s over
if you step on them?
Leave them alone,
he went on to say,
after clearing his throat,
and when the rain stops,
they crawl back into the ground." -Advice by Dan Gerber "Inhabitant of earth for fortysomething years
I once found myself in a peaceful country. I watch neighbors open
their phones to watch
a cop demanding a man’s driver’s license. When a man reaches for his wallet, the cop
shoots. Into the car window. Shoots.
It is a peaceful country." -from In A Time of Peace by Ilya Kaminsky
"More and more I have come to admire resilience.
Not the simple resistance of a pillow, whose foam
returns over and over to the same shape, but the sinuous
tenacity of a tree: finding the light newly blocked on one side,
it turns in another. A blind intelligence, true.
But out of such persistence arose turtles, rivers,
mitochondria, figs--all this resinous, unretractable earth." -Optimism by Jane Hirshfield
Recommended Listening:
Nostalgic Montage - Salami Rose Joe Louis (the entire album is gold!)
Yellowstone Park Soundscapes (while staring at this rainbow at the Yosemite Falls)
Ekta Golpo - Tajdar Junaid feat. Satyaki Banerjee, Anusheh Anadil
Links of the Week:
Why Small Businesses Should Start Marketing on Day One: A Mailchimp Report (I love Mailchimp for constantly putting out these free resources. I strong recommend every entrepreneur to read this, regardless of what stage of growing your business you're at) Pianist Francesco Mancarella invents a piano that paints! Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings Trapped inside animator Don Hertzfeldt’s world 13 Life-Learnings from 13 Years of Brain Pickings
Sarah Labrie on Why Writing is Supposed to Be Difficult
Instagram Lovin':
Interview: Michael L Pontieri
"Work on your craft. Look and listen. Empathy is nice."
I'm happy to share my latest interview with American painter Michael Pontieri, whose colours, sense of realism and choice of subjects have always piqued my curiosity.
Read the interview here: www.thealiporepost.com/blog/interview-michael-l-pontieri
Sending this newsletter with love from the room in Alipore where this newsletter was born,
Rohini