Poetry at Sangam
Poetry at Sangam showcases poetry in English and translations as well as essays on poetics and news of new releases.
Volume IX | Issue 2
I am delighted —and in no small measure – relieved to announce that the marvellous poet Mrinalini Harchandrai has joined Poetry at Sangam as Deputy Editor. The fine changes you notice in this issue are due to her. Read her poems here. The conscientious Arpita Lulla continues as webmaster; the poster which announces each new issue is her idea. “Increases visibility,” she said, and got down to work. We are now a team of three who jointly promise to make each issue a more regular reading experience for you.
Alexander Booth is extraordinary both as a poet and a translator. We are very happy to carry excerpts from his new collection of poetry and poetic pieces, TRIPTYCH – The Little Light That Escaped. It’s an evocative name for a brilliant book that segues past and present, layers shadow on rippling shadow, and above all, sings of “the light that escapes” which embeds in us as memory, as art recollected, as truths that pierce their passage through us.
Anand Thakore is highly accomplished, both as a poet and a Hindustani Khayal singer. This deep engagement with music traditions translates in his poetry as complex and compelling sound structures. At ease in multiple cultures and use of varied poetic forms, his writing is supple and sensuous; while metaphysical ruminations underlie his work as does the presence of his city, Mumbai. His voice, ambitious and confident in its reach through time and art histories, makes him a pleasure to read. And re-read… “Watch black and gold revive old questions,/ Till gold betrays its transience, yielding to black—”
Autumn Richardson is a poet I deeply admire for the beauty of her poetry and her encompassing depth of vision. Read her work here. She has graciously curated this tribute to the late Don Domanski that we are honoured to carry. His metaphysical poems unmoor us from the tethering of the everyday to return us to our core: creatures who share shadow and luminescence with all of life, and what can be imagined as ‘home’. As he writes in ‘Worm Song’, to carry our “ …diminished body/ around the certain ecstasy / of this globe.” Read his poems, and swoon.
Ilana Dann Luna translates Gaspar Orozco from the Spanish. Her translations remind me of the limpid clarity and remarkable solidity of water swilled within a crystal chalice that’s held up to the light. These poems, in their prismatic opening, invite us into a universe where the minute and the vast equally hold their places, and are birthed in the fleeting experience of seeing and remain as etched traces of vision. We are invited into the borderless country of ti me as river and chasm, of mutability, longing and secret prayer. As he writes, “The idea, then, is that the wanderer must find the light that, after all disappearance, remains. “
Jessica Wilkinson’s non-fiction poetry is intriguing, intellectually piercing and inventive. Discernable are her interest in experimental writing and the L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poets. More significantly, her courage in pushing form within each suite of poems she presents is dazzling. It speaks of her deep commitment and tenderness towards her ‘subjects’. In her own words, her poetic biographies thrust “…beyond the capabilities of the prose sentence; they test new dimensions for nonfiction writing, and in each work, the ‘form’ of the biography has emerged in response to research encounters.”
K. Srilata brings to her poems erudition, empathy and élan. With a power, freshness and lyricism rare to be found in retellings, she probes the underside of the Mahabharata to offer a passionate exploration of what it means to be silenced, and the subversive significances of sacrifice. The spaces of thought expand as we enter her world where mythic memories that aren’t ours rise to claim us as their own. Heady work this, as she melds various narrative and poetic genres into vibrant and unfettered poems. Alone worth the read is her multifarious interpretation of the sakhi, or friend, to the heroine. Read on.
A major figure in Anglophone Indian literature Keki Daruwalla is renowned for singing truth to power. As scholar-poet he strides across world myths, histories and ground realities, and through urban and rural landscapes to write about the epic and the miniscule in a voice that is predominantly satirical, behind which lies a compassionate vision. Employing a range of poetic devices and styles, his verses are muscular, moving and often colloquial. A hallmark of his work is his ingenious use of the aside to return us of the moment which is to be lived fully and with tenderness. To this much awarded poet, short story writer, novelist, essayist, columnist, shaper of literary institutions and courteous friend to emerging poets we present our pranams.
We thank the gifted and versatile poet, translator, painter, curator and philosopher Anjali Purohit for her customary generosity in sharing this clip of Keki Daruwalla’s recent reading from her poetry forum, The Cappuccino Adda. Read Anjali’s poems here.
Priya Sarukkai Chabria
July 2021
Pune, India
Founding Editor: Priya Sarukkai Chabria
Deputy Editor: Mrinalini Harchandrai
Webmaster: Arpita Lulla
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