Winter on my Mind: Part IV
Two winter-themed art series + more winter poems to cozy up to
// Art
1. The Winter Mice by Jacqueline Williams
“The art set is a tribute to Beatrix Potter, the 20th century children's writer and illustrator, who is the creator of the famous fictional character Peter Rabbit. I make these winter mice in honour of her countless anthropomorphic animal stories which both delighted children as well as provided them with accurate animal anatomy and their habits. This type of facticity is often denied to children when it comes to whimsical talking animals but Potter always believed that it is important to retain the "spirit-world of childhood, tempered and balanced by knowledge and common-sense." Which is what I wish to convey through my art set of mice prepping for the winter.”
-Jacqueline Williams
See the full series here.
2. It’s really cold just before the spring. Keep going! by Shubhshree Mathur
“This is a visual art series documenting people I spotted during last winter amidst COVID surge. It has people from different walks of life, occupations, family situations etc coping with life during COVID.”
-Shubhshree Mathur
See the full series here.
// Poetry
1. Micro-poem by Deepa Gopal
The chilly morning soaked up
The grief that lay in tears—
Wrapped in mist
Beading up one by one—
The shards that lay frozen
In time—
Hibernating
Recuperating
Evolving—
Into something new.
2. Knorr Tomato Soup, 25% extra by Rhea Goyal (Excerpt)
Maa tells me to make more soup than required,
Imagine one-sixth of the cup and add extra,
Not for the risk factor of running out,
But you will taste the soup a thousand times,
Before you pour yourself a cup.
It is a cold morning, the kind that makes sure you see it,
The kind you notice,
And you look for a sweater in the middle of the afternoon,
And in those winters,
You make yourself soup.
Read the full poem here.
3. Diffused love by Suchi Govindarajan (Excerpt)
In days when sunspots flecked my lashes
and the sand felt blister-rough as though it
would fuse into glass and catch the glare,
I dreamt of becoming a migrant bird
compelled to find routes away from the sun
I would follow every winter wind and current
And as calendars faded to blue-ink endings,
I would fly to lands full of diffused light
Read the full poem here.
4. The Amusement Park by Nameera Anjum Khan (Excerpt)
Maple syrup whines,
Draped in cotton candy smiles
My caramel body was never a temple;
It was always a fancy notebook, emptied behind an iceberg of hesitation.
Trench coat diaries,
Voices bubble inside my mother's beige shawl;
The twists in the cloth tighten around her bosom,
I breathe a metallic rebellion inside her throat.
Read the full poem here. Accompanying art by Atreyee Basu in the journal.
5. Lingering Winter by Aishwarya Shrivastav (Excerpt)
I
The cold
doesn't swallow itself
Sometimes the tongue feels foreign in my own mouth once it has been in someone else's
II
New Years slip in new ones
Old fingerprints stuck on them
I can't wriggle free of a hand too soon
I feel weird wanting to stay
No one stays long enough anymore
III
I don't remember being loved
as much as I remember being understood
Returning to a warm bed after a long winter
Unkempt litter of stale passion
Lovers have left the room but love didn't
Read the full poem here.
6. Frozen by Bhumika Billa (Excerpt)
Tonight is fairylights, putting me to bed
for the seventh time, failing at the job
for the seventh night, I try help
drag myself out of the ice, stare
at fresh air that had promised
to hold me, let me share
my fire, the morning will become
a shopping cart, chocolate at last
will for days remind me, it is
there, inside my bag, screaming
a desperate cry, like inside me-
who’s here?
Read the full poem here.
7. The Sweater by Purbali Mukherjee (Excerpt)
The sleeves hardly reach my wrists.
The wool has faded in most places.
But it is still my favourite sweater.
It is still my favourite memory.
Read the full poem here.
8. Winter by Parul Vaidya (Excerpt)
The caravan of nature is speeding past
But neither a bud is seen nor a leaf
The flower lost its roots to the merciless cold wind
The grass is growing along, without a tear for the open wound
Read the full poem here. Accompanying art by Nayana Gupta in the journal.
9. Winter in the Tropics by Trevor Pinto (Excerpt)
Let us go to the beach is an emotion
Parents, friends, relatives stating the word
would create an instant reaction.
Certain things cannot be explained.
Crashing of the waves, the breeze(r)
can get one excited.
How does one explain perfect beach-going weather?
Oh Gosh!
One can’t stop humming
I've Just Seen A Face by The Beatles
Fallin', yes, I am fallin'
And she keeps callin'
Me back again.
Read the full poem here.
10. Winter by Sakshi Vishwakarma
Winters always reminds of the misty mornings on the ghats of benares, where cold wind gushes through you and makes you stand still for what seems like an eternity'. My inspiration to create this was simply the feeling or the experience and nostalgia of Benares. It reminded me of multiple feelings - warmth, comfort, sadness and brutality of overwhelming emotions. It's these fragments of experiences that one gets to witness only in the winters. It's these feelings, emotions and experiences that were packed in a red little envelope of words and photographs.
Read the full photo-poem here.
11. The Great Contraction by Rachael Madore (Excerpt)
Tidings
Turning tides
Time creeping on
Turning seasons
From fall-winter to winter-winter
From freedom, access, expansion
To this guttural Great Contraction
That takes root in the under-most belly of the city
As all its members gather their loved ones
Ben, Jerry, the cat, the roommate
And retreat
Under cover from nature’s cruellest trick
Read the full poem here.
12. pulsing, under ice by Namratha Varadharajan
in one fell swoop
outside
is a forbidden land.
icy winds nonchalantly blow death around, life
a piece of translucent plastic caught in the draft.
windows close themselves. eight seasons of winter.
stagnant breath. do hide
in a cosy corner. unlearn,
relearn to keep warm.
weave a cocoon, make some tea.
be seed. munch/mulch dead leaves. stay buried.
in the stillness, through the numb,
stitch a few feathers together,
prod through the hard dry crust,
inch your way to the water table
far below.
uncertain shoot. biting frosts.
chewed off toes, iffy sun. some hearts still thump.
wide wings in narrow alleys. birds perch
on leafless trees. Leafless trees
(still) breathe. dreams
continue to spring.