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Poet Natasha Trethewey wins the 2017 Heinz Award
It is wonderful to hear that poet Natasha Trethewey has been named the 2017 Heinz Award Winner – Northwestern Now. Trethewey has written a magnificent ghazal “Miscegenation” that I discuss in my PhD dissertation on the American ghazal. [Image: Poets.org]
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Space, a ghazal in the making
Aged five, an early memory, Rakesh Sharma travelling in space Mrs. Gandhi, he said, India appears best in the world, unravelling in space When I go back home, the Mango tree has shrunk The courtyard looks smaller, what is this diminishing space My sister pretty like a flower, a gentle soul She ended her relationship,…
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This is the house that Jack built
Twitter informed me that today is World Poetry Day. Arundhati Roy says, “There’s really no such thing as the ‘voiceless’. There are only the deliberately silenced, or the preferably unheard.” Thus, I am going to leave this here in case it matters. The House BY WARSAN SHIRE i Mother says there are locked rooms inside…
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The Miscarriage by Amit Majmudar
Some species can crack pavement with their shoots Source: The Miscarriage “if I consoled you it would make the loss your loss” —– How can Amit Majmudar’s words so relentlessly tangle the insides? Each line comes loaded, “his wealth of heartbeats.” I am currently reading his collection Dothead (2016). It has two ghazals. One of…
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To tell you the truth
I have been writing poems a lot more than I usually do and reworking drafts of old poems. Perhaps due to my PhD work on the ghazal I tend to spend more time on structure and sound. Strict metrical scales and working with rhymes, refrains, provide me with an effective tool to have a dialogue with…
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I Go for a Walk in the Evening While the Body Stays at Home by Alix Anne Shaw – Guernica
These wet and windy days aggravate the rheumatism in my joints. I struggle to keep the body at pace with my mind. My mind: the curious two-year old, with the passion of a teenage romance, and the gravity of mid-life. The body oscillates. Move forward, I demand of it, it stays at home. Then comes…
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Poem Unlimited, Augsburg
Over the weekend I attended and spoke at the Poem Unlimited Conference at Augsburg. The venue, the Augsburg University, has a beautiful campus. The trees were in Autumn hues. I was narrated the story of a duck family in the University pond. A ledge was removed from one of the campus buildings so to lessen…
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Liars, Cadavers and Vultures
“The liar often suffers from amnesia. Amnesia is the silence of the unconscious.” (Rich, Adrienne. Arts Of The Possible: Essays and Conversations. 32) Cadavers are Useful Things Vultures in wake Shoulders tense Crouching Hovering Pecking Gawk, squawk Peck, peck, peck Delicious diseased flesh Old World or New World? Filled with acid Leak, leak, leak Urine…
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Dilruba Pe Dil Aaya
I discovered Dilruba Ahmed’s poetry in the early part of this year and it has stayed with me. The first poem I read was: “Snake Oil, Snake Bite” and it lingered over my days, making me smile at odd-moments as I remembered its tender irony. Imagine my joy when I discovered she had written a ghazal.…
