22:52, sunday, december 06, '09

these days am reading a lot of things concurrently. (normally i don't. just finish up one thing and move on the next. but that is difficult to manage with poetry, so read on...)

so on one hand there is Kunwar Narain's collection of gazals i mentioned in the last post, there is the book of Indian literary writings i talked about recently and then there is a Penguin omnibus on Delhi through the ages. apart from that, pickings in-between from the best short stories by Roald Dahl and the promise of reading Agyeya's collection of Hindi stories. my Isla Negra, yeah that blessing by St. Neruda, has been booknapped by Dee and as she is in the middle of her exams, i'll request her to return it to me soon. that's a pretty neat bunch of varied thoughts and measures churning up in my mind. and this all is apart from the stuff i continue reading (and sharing) on the internet.

so this sunday night, while 'a love struck romeo' plays in and around my ears, i take you to the enchanting world of Vikram Seth's poetry collection on Penguin titled, rather unimaginatively, 'The Collected Poems'. as the publisher mentions in the note, "This volume contains the definitive text of all the poems which first appeared in Mappings, The Humble Administrator's Garden, All You Who Sleep Tonight, Three Chinese Poets, Beastly Tales From Here and There, and Arion & The Dolphin." Vikram Seth has also written a novel in verse - Golden Gate which is not included in this collection. (i've that, a birthday gift by Dee, but haven't managed to read it yet!)

as of now i've reached only the first few pages of this collection's first book, 'Mappings'. and i must say, am hooked baby, this guy is making me fall in love with English again, (it has happenned previously, but only twice, one while reading 'the god of small things' and the other while uncovering 'the heart of darkness'. and i digress again!) okay, i was talking about his language skills, the way it melts and moulds in his hands, the way he picks up the most mundane of things and makes them shine like stars on an moonless night. these first few poems talk about tomatoes and departure lounges, about grand canyon and hawks soaring soundlessly above in the sky, above lovers separated in different time zones and a young impressionable guy returning home after a stint abroad, neither here not there. these poems have words addressed to a sister and those reserved for a fellow traveller, a sonnet to the poet's "generous and exuberant love", to thoughts on death's role in dying and the first thoughts that come to him when 'getting up he sees rain quietly dripping down on a grey ,"sublit" dawn.' what i like most about these poems is that he is not using any heavy words, or deepset imagery, just words and images from our daily lives and coming up with startling pieces of life-giving verse. today i share a peom i felt was amongst the most beautiful i've read so far, with an apt and startling end. do tell me if you liked it and if you ran for this book right after finishing the poem :)

Home Thoughts From The Bay

Down Highway 101 the van
Hurtles with all the speed it can
And all the passengers but one
Have jolted off to sleep. The sun
Strikes long apocalyptic lines
Of corrugated sheds, the tines
Of Sutro Tower, billboards, wires,
The airport, scrap, discrded tyres;
And i who must commute each day
Along the grimy-margined Bay
Dizzied by each high-octane breath
And tired of work and bored to death
And sick for home decide i ought
To check that surrogate for thought,
The Highway I-Ching - which today
States 'Yield.' 'Keep Right.' 'Go Back. Wrong Way.'
Should I fly home? Why am I here?
And yield to what? To whim? Fate? Fear?
Keep Right... My eyes obey and there
Pursue a jumbo-jet to where
This afternoon high in the sky
A half moon loiters absently by,
Incognizant of why or what
Or where it ought to be or not.

- Vikram Seth