Collected Poems
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Collected Poems SUJATA BHATT was born in Ahmedabad, India. She grew up in Pune (India) and in the United States. She received her MFA from the Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa. To date, she has published seven collections of poetry with Carcanet Press. She received the Commonwealth Poetry Prize (Asia) and the Alice Hunt Bartlett Award for her first collection, Brunizem (1988). Subsequent collections include Monkey Shadows (PBS Recommendation, 1991), The Stinking Rose (shortlisted for the Forward Poetry Prize, 1995), Point No Point (1997), Augatora (PBS Recommendation, 2000), A Colour for Solitude (2002), and Pure Lizard (shortlisted for the Forward Poetry Prize, 2008). She received a Cholmondeley Award in 1991, the Italian Tratti Poetry Prize in 2000, and the German Literature Award, Das neue Buch, in 2008. She has translated poetry from Gujarati and German into English. She has been a Lansdowne Visiting Writer at the University of Victoria, in British Columbia, a Visiting Fellow at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania, and more recently was Poet-in-Residence at the Poetry Archive in London and at the Heinrich Böll Cottage on Achill Island, Ireland. Her work has been widely anthologised, broadcast on radio and television, and has been translated into more than twenty languages. She divides her time between Germany and elsewhere. Also by Sujata Bhatt from Carcanet Press Brunizem Monkey Shadows The Stinking Rose Point No Point: Selected Poems Augatora A Colour for Solitude Pure Lizard SUJATA BHATT Collected Poems Acknowledgements Some of these poems have been revised, while others appear in a different order than in the original books. I am immensely grateful to Urmi Bhatt, Bharat Pathak, Michael Schmidt and Helen Tookey for their helpful comments. First published in Great Britain in 2013 by Carcanet Press Limited Alliance House Cross Street Manchester M2 7AQ www.carcanet.co.uk Copyright © Sujata Bhatt 1988, 1991, 1995, 1997, 2000, 2002, 2007, 2008, 2013 The right of Sujata Bhatt to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988 All rights reserved A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978 1 85754 997 3 The publisher acknowledges financial assistance from Arts Council England Typeset by XL Publishing Services, Exmouth Printed and bound in England by SRP Ltd, Exeter Contents BRUNIZEM (1988) I The First Disciple Sujata: The First Disciple of Buddha 3 The Peacock 4 Iris 5 Buffaloes 6 (Udaylee) 7 The Doors are Always Open 8 (Shérdi) 9 Swami Anand 10 For Nanabhai Bhatt 12 Nachiketa 14 Kalika 16 For My Grandmother 17 Muliebrity 17 Reincarnation 18 Lizards 20 The First Meeting 21 Something for Plato 22 The Difference between Being and Becoming 23 II A Different History A Different History 24 She Finds Her Place 25 The Kama Sutra Retold 26 Menu 28 Parvati 29 Looking Through a French Photographer’s Portrayal of Rajasthan with Extensive Use of Orange Filters 31 Oranges and Lemons 33 The Women of Leh are such – 34 Paper and Glass 35 Another Act for the Lübecker Totentanz 36 What Is Worth Knowing? 37 Another Day in Iowa City 39 Living with Trains 40 Baltimore 43 CONTENTS v The Woodcut 44 The Puppets 45 Pink Shrimps and Guesses 46 Looking Over What I Have Done 47 Hey, 47 Search for My Tongue 48 III Eurydice Speaks Marie Curie to Her Husband 56 The Garlic of Truth 57 Wanting Agni 59 Eurydice Speaks 62 Mein lieber Schwan 63 Written after Hearing about the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan 64 3 November 1984 66 You Walk into This Room and 67 Mappelmus 67 The Undertow 68 At the Marketplace 70 Metamorphoses II: A Dream 71 Saturday Night on Keswick Road 74 The Writer 75 Sad Songs with Henna Leaves 76 Tail 77 Go to Ahmedabad 78 To My Muse 81 Brunizem 83 Well, Well, Well, 84 MONKEY SHADOWS (1991) I The Way to Maninagar The Langur Coloured Night 91 The Stare 93 Maninagar Days 96 The Daily Offering 101 The Glassy Green and Maroon 102 Ajwali Ba 104 Nanabhai Bhatt in Prison 107 vi COLLECTED POEMS Kankaria Lake 110 A Different Way to Dance 113 What Happened to the Elephant? 116 Red August 118 Understanding the Ramayana 121 Devibahen Pathak 125 II Angels’ Wings Angels’ Wings 131 Mozartstrasse 18 133 Yellow October 138 Wine from Bordeaux 139 A Story for Pearse 142 Groningen: Saturday Market on a Very Sunny Day 147 Counting Sheep White Blood Cells 148 The Mad Woman in the Attic 150 The Fish Hat 152 The Echoes in Poona 155 Walking Across the Brooklyn Bridge, July 1990 158 III Until Our Bones Prevent Us from Going Further The Sea at Night 160 Another Portrait of Bartolo 161 Rooms by the Sea 163 Franz Marc’s Blaue Fohlen 164 Sunlight in a Cafeteria 165 Portrait of a Double Portrait 166 White Asparagus 167 Distances 168 The Rooster in Conil 169 Just White Chips 171 Beyond Edinburgh 172 Love in a Bathtub 174 Belfast, November 1987 175 29 April 1989 177 The Need to Recall the Journey 178 At the Flower Market 182 Sinking into the Solstice 183 Until Our Bones Prevent Us from Going Further 184 What Does One Write When the World Starts to Disappear? 187 CONTENTS vii THE STINKING ROSE (1995) I Freak Waves The One Who Goes Away 191 We are Adrift 194 Although She’s a Small Woman 195 Point No Point 196 ‘Man Swept out to Sea as Huge Wave Hit Rock’ 198 When the Dead Feel Lonely 199 How Far East is it Still East? 200 The Three Sisters 202 The Wild Woman of the Forest 204 Polish-German Woodcarver Visits Vancouver Island 205 Victor, Whiskey, Juliet, 2 2 3 207 Salt Spring Island 209 Your Sorrow 210 II New World Dialogues The Light Teased Me 211 Cow’s Skull – Red, White and Blue 212 Skinny-dipping in History 213 Parrots 215 What Does the Flower of Life Say, Frida Kahlo? 216 Chutney 217 Nothing is Black, Really Nothing 218 The Blue Snake Who Loves Water 221 Pelvis with Moon 223 It Has Come to This 224 III The Stinking Rose The Stinking Rose 225 Ninniku 227 (Russown) 229 Garlic in War and Peace 231 Mars Owns this Herb 232 A Touch of Coriander 233 Bear’s Garlic at Nevern 234 Frightened Bees 237 Ther is No Rose of Swych Virtu 238 viii COLLECTED POEMS The Worm 238 A Poem in Three Voices 239 A Brahmin Wants the Cows to Eat Lots of Garlic 241 If You Named Your Daughter Garlic Instead of Lily or Rose 242 Self-Portrait with Garlic 243 Allium Moly and Odysseus 244 Instructions to the Artist 245 A First Draft from the Artist 246 The Man in the Artist’s First Draft Speaks 247 The Good Farmer 248 A Wintry July in Bremen 249 Rosehips in August 250 If a Ghazal were like Garlic 251 Garlic and Sapphires in the Mud 252 The Pharaoh Speaks 253 It Has Not Rained for Months 254 IV Old World Blood An India of the Soul 256 A Gujarati Patient Speaks 257 (Shantih) 259 Genealogy 261 Black Swans for Swantje 262 One of the Wurst-Eaters on the Day After Good Friday 264 Fate 265 Orpheus Confesses to Eurydice 267 Jealousy 269 Kaspar Hauser Dreams of Horses 270 Ophelia in Defence of the Queen 272 Monsoon with Vector Anophelines 273 More Fears about the Moon 274 Lizard, Iguana, Chameleon, Salamander 276 Sharda 278 V (Riyaj) The Voices 280 Consciousness 282 Translation: Meditation on a Poem by Hasmukh Pathak 283 First Rain 286 Sruti 287 CONTENTS ix Water 288 Frauenjournal 291 AUGATORA (2000) I Augatora Looking Up 295 Squirrels 296 The Dream 298 Augatora 300 Durban: A Visit to the Botanical Gardens 302 A Memory from Marathi 303 The Virologist 305 Barcelona 306 Gazpacho 307 After Dinner in Conil 308 Your Postcards 309 A Swimmer in New England Speaks 310 The Snake Catcher Speaks 313 II History is a Broken Narrative Surus to Hannibal 314 Partition 315 Diabetes Mellitus 316 The Pope, Tito and the WHO 316 After the Earthquake 317 Voice of the Unwanted Girl 318 History is a Broken Narrative 320 New Orleans Revisited 324 The Shirodkar Suture 326 A Room in Amsterdam 327 Honeymoon 328 Jerusalem 330 The Woman they call Abuela 331 Łódź 333 Green Amber in Riga 334 Language 335 Jane to Tarzan 337 x COLLECTED POEMS III The Hole in the Wind The Hole in the Wind 340 IV The Found Angel: Nine Poems for Ria Eïng The Found Angel 349 Birthday Totem Pole 352 The Snail-Ear 353 Stingray 354 Vogelfrau 355 Broom, Wind and Bird: Zeitwanderer 356 The Fox and the Angel 357 A Black Feather 358 Beeswax and Snakeskin Head 359 V Ars Poetica Is it a Voice? 360 Skintight with Ice 361 The Mammoth Bone 362 My Mother’s Way of Wearing a Sari 363 A Poem Consisting Entirely of Introductions 366 This Room is Part of the NYC Subway System 367 Montauk Garden with Stones and Water 368 Equilibrium 368 A Detail from the Chandogya Upanishad 369 Poem for a Reader who was Born Blind 370 The Circle 371 The Multicultural Poem 372 Meeting the Artist in Durban 376 Ars Poetica 378 A COLOUR FOR SOLITUDE (2002) Self-Portrait as Aubade, 1897 383 Self-Portrait Done with Red Chalk, 1897 385 Self-Portrait as My Sister, 1897 386 Self-Portrait with Coppery Red Hair, 1897/98 387 Self-Portrait in Front of Window Offering a View of Parisian Houses, 1900 388 Two Girls, Two Sisters, PB to CW, 1900 389 CONTENTS xi Black Sails, PB to RMR, September 1900 390 A White Horse Grazing in Moonlight, 1901 393 Your Weyerberg Gaze, CW to RMR, 1901 394 No Road Leads to This, CW to RMR, 1901 396 The Washing on the Line, 1901 398 Two Girls in a Landscape, 1901 399 Icicles Hang from the Reeds of Our Roof, CW to PB, February 1902 401 You Kissed My Eyelids, PB to RMR, March 1902 402 Elsbeth, PB to CW, July 1902 405 Self-Portrait with Scratches, 1903 406 Self-Portrait with Blossoming Trees, 1903 408 Two Girls: The Blind Sister, 1903 409 Self-Portrait in Front