Poetry at Sangam

SangamHouse

 










Naming by Priya Sarukkai Chabria

For my mother

Names float up her mind:
She’s mother, I’m daughter
We are separated for the first time
 
Somewhere a veil of emerald
trembles the sky’s arc as
sunrays break earth’s membrane
 
 Somewhere the soil opens
as a mouse pushes out of its hole. Around
its head a shimmer of green grass flames
 
Somewhere in-between breath mists
in and out of my flowering lungs
that are smaller than her ear
 
 
She holds me for the first time
my skin puckered by her fluids, her face
a chandrama of love,
lantern to my life
 
I hold her for the last time 
Boat, flower, riversmoke and fragrance
Touch taste sight smell and listening
The moon rubbed up from night’s ink, camphor’s
quick blaze, encouragement and silence
Lust, impatience, courage and cosmic gust –
 
before she blows past the horizon
 
 
 
 
 
 

Priya Sarukkai Chabria’s books include speculative fiction, cross-genre non-fiction, a novel, two poetry collections and translations of Tamil mystic Andal’s songs. Awarded for her Outstanding Contribution to Literature by the Indian Government, her work is translated into seven languages. Priya has experimented with the Sanskrit Rasa theory of aesthetics and ancient Tamil poetics, co-founded the silent film society Friends of the Archive and curated seminars for the Indian Academy of Literature. Her work is in anthologies, books and journals including Adelphiana, Asymptote, Caravan, Growing Up as a Woman Writer, I Q, The Literary Review (USA), The HarperCollins Book of English Poetry, Southerly, South Asian Review, PEN International, Post Road , The British Journal of Literary Translation , Pratilipi, Language for a New Century, Another English: Anglophone Poems from Around the World, South Asian Review, Writing Love: An Anthology of Indian English Poetry etc. She has presented her work around the world. She edits Poetry at Sangam. http://poetryatsangam.com// More at: www.priyawriting.com