Pagoda Poems
Sukrita Kumar
(Inspired by poems hanging over and around the master pagoda near Hanoi, Vietnam)
nine times over
the word nothingness
emerges again
and yet again
in the twenty-word poem
by the master monk
the dragon, they say,
descends into the sea
searching for meaning
and spewing jewels
jewels that become rocks
with stalactites piercing into
bellies of rocks
columns of light rise
dressed in stunning colours
devils dancing
in step with gods
all in all,
adding to nothingness
and making meaning
*
what is real?
image of the bird
fluttering in the sky
or the one still
in the gushing river
the wavy moon
in the water
or the one above
that is steady
parallel
forever
Sukrita Paul Kumar was born and brought up in Kenya and at present lives in Delhi. She held the Aruna Asaf Ali Chair at the University of Delhi till recently. An invited poet and an Honorary Fellow of International Writing Programme, University of Iowa (USA) and a former Fellow of the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, she was also poet in residence at Hong Kong Baptist University. (It was in Iowa that I first met Marjorie Evasco as a fellow poet in the International Writing Programme. We found ourselves connecting off and on over the three months of our stay there. Sharing poetry, conversation and so many get-togethers, we developed a rapport with each other. Marj came across as a gentle and sensitive human being with a strong sense of humour and wit. Our communication has remained in my mind as a cherished memory.)
Sukrita has published several collections of poems in English including, Country Drive, Dream Catcher, Untitled, Folds of Silence, Without Margins and Rowing Together. Her poems selected and translated into many languages including into Hindustani done by the eminent lyricist Gulzar and published by HarperCollins as a bilingual book, Poems Come Home.
Sukrita’s major critical works include Narrating Partition, Conversations on Modernism, The New Story and Man, Woman and Androgyny. Some of her co-edited books are Ismat, Her Life, Her Times, Interpreting Homes in South Asian Literature and Women’s Studies in India: Contours of Change and Speaking for Herself: An Anthology of Asian Women’s Writings. (I must point out here that when we organized a launch of the book Speaking for Myself, in Kolkata, Marjorie was one of the three poets we invited to be there in person. That was yet another occasion to spend time with her. Eventually, her visit to Delhi for a literary festival brought us together once again.)
As Director of a UNESCO project on “The Culture of Peace”, Sukrita edited Mapping Memories, a volume of Urdu short stories from India and Pakistan. She has two books of translations, Stories of Joginder Paul and the novel Sleepwalkers. She is the chief editor of the book on Cultural Diversity in India published by Macmillan India and prescribed by the University of Delhi.
A recipient of many prestigious fellowships and residencies, Sukrita has lectured at many universities in India and abroad. A solo exhibition of her paintings was held at AIFACS, Delhi. A number of Sukrita’s poems have emerged from her experience of working with homeless people.
