Weekly Edition #102
Art by Veikko Vionoja
Otherwise by Jane Kenyon
I got out of bed
on two strong legs.
It might have been
otherwise. I ate
cereal, sweet
milk, ripe, flawless
peach. It might
have been otherwise.
I took the dog uphill
to the birch wood.
All morning I did
the work I love.
At noon I lay down
with my mate. It might
have been otherwise.
We ate dinner together
at a table with silver
candlesticks. It might
have been otherwise.
I slept in a bed
in a room with paintings
on the walls, and
planned another day
just like this day.
But one day, I know,
it will be otherwise.
Other poems I enjoyed reading this week:
"All that ocean of blue
soon as those clouds
Pass away"
-haiku by Jack Kerouac
"We’re out
to repair the future. There’s an umbrella
by the door, not for yesterday but for the weather
that’s here. I say weather but I mean
a form of governing that deals out death
and names it living. I say weather but I mean
a November that won’t be held off. This time
nothing, no one forgotten. We are here for the storm
that’s storming because what’s taken matters."
-from Weather by Claudia Rankine (the most apt poem to read during this pandemic)
"I hope that occasionally you reach back,
even if only briefly to recall your beginning self as a
visitor new to the planet, unencumbered and dear."
-from Tired by Irene Sipos
Recommended Listening:
Absence - Asfandyar Khan
Sunflower River Blues - John Fahey
Marilyn - Mount Kimbie ft. Micachu
Links of the Week:
Search Results
Web results
An Island with Clouds - Georgia O'Keeffe
1,100 Works of Art by Georgia O’Keeffe are now digitised and free to view online!
Watch: COVID Loop + Alike + Lots of Love (60 animators made this)
Pay Attention: The Art of Noticing
Researchers Examine Plants Brought Back to Life From 32,000-Year-Old Seeds
New on the website:
Artist of the Month: Anuradha Bhaumick
And finally, introducing the embroidered works of Anuradha Bhaumick, our Artist of the Month. "Embroidery has been a remedy to my anxieties and anger. The key themes for my embroidery are reading and relaxation. I create sceneries of lush foliage and dreamy reading poses, all to dilute the monotony of everyday life with the monotony itself."-Anuradha
Art by Marc Chagall
Poem: Safe Distance by Shafaat Shahbandari
Now, I only have space to grapple with / Everything else is distanced
Photo Essay: The Secret Lives of Nonhumans by Ashni Dhawale
A wildlife biologist in the Western Ghats shares a wonderful collection of photographs that offer a glimpse into the lives of some of the nonhumans from around the research station, surrounding tea plantations and rainforest fragments.
Glimpses of Bombay: Linesh Desai x Method x The Alipore Post
A collaboration with Method India, who invited visual artist and cinematographer Linesh Desai to do an Instagram takeover during the lockdown, capturing life in Bombay. I invited some poets from Bombay who are a part of the poetry workshop The Quarantine Train to interpret some of these videos in verse.
Art by Milton Avery
nether x The Alipore Post: Neither here nor there
A collection of poems picked from the nether archives on spaces/places that remain in our memory, and in the poems we write. Featuring poems by Janice Pariat, Arjun Rajendran, Dominic Alapat, Meera Suryanarayanan and Dilip Chitre.
This was one of the hardest newsletters for me to put together because I've been feeling a little stuck of late and not being able to get out of my head. I've been trying to recuperate, watching Malayalam movies and lots of Netflix shows, learning how to make sourdough, and just letting this feeling pass. I hope something in this newsletter resonates with you :) Feel free to write back if something does.
Sending out hope into the world, and a whole lot of gratitude to everyone out there fighting this virus.
Take care of yourselves!
-Rohini