Poetry at Sangam

Poetry at Sangam showcases poetry in English and translations as well as essays on poetics and news of new releases.

ALL MUSIC IS MEMORY by Sridala Swami

All music is memory:
a lone wind trapped in the chimes,
a window rattling dolefully
in time to the movement of the night.

If my life were stretched
across the drum of centuries
I might have time to discern
the pattern in the creaking of trees.

But destinies drown through time.
A million years are lost
and I try in vain to cup my hands
and hold a note, a scale, a song.

(from A Reluctant Survivor, Sahitya Akademi, 2007)

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