by gopikrishnan Kottoor
line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> ‘Daddy’, I said, ‘Stand by those shoe flowers,
line-height:115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> there are so many of them blooming this morning’.
Daddy took a step back.
There is a strange beauty, dad
in the hibiscus sheen, when, from the fresh green
the hundred shoe flowers mount red.
Daddy now looked like he was some God
coming to me in a dream of sacrifice.
He puffed hard at his cigarette,
its red butt putting all the hibiscus
buds to shame.
Looking on into the camera eye, he said, ‘Be
careful, son,
115%;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif""> of the sun in front of you. Don’t let
in too much light’.
I knelt down, so the lens could take the
shade,
holding him right.
Dad then smiled, as though the camera was
his laid woman.
And in that stained silence,
Time
built a riverside chapel around us.
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ABOUT THE POET ~
Born (1956), Trivandrum, Kerala, India., Winner, All India Poetry Prizes, Poetry Society, India-British Council Awards (96, 97, 98), and other leading poetry prizes. Poetry published in Ariel (Canada), Orbis (UK), Nth Position (UK), Bluefifth Review (UK), Toronto Review (Canada), The Illustrated Weekly of India, Kavya Bharati (India), Fulcrum (USA), Verse, Seattle, (USA), Indian Literature, Arabesque Review, Plaza (Japan), Chandrabhaga (India), and others. Founder editor, Poetry Chain. Participant, MFA, Texas state University, (2000) Poet in Residence, Augsburg University, Germany (2004). Important works : Poetry : Father, Wake Us In Passing, (German Translation, Wolfgang Heyder) A Buchenwald Diary, Mother Sonata, Victoria Terminus, Poems Selected and New (2010). The Coloured Yolk of Love (2012). Drama: Fire In The Soul The Mask of Death. Novel : A Bridge Over Karma (Novel). Poetry included in The Bloodaxe book of Contemporary Indian Poetry In English, The Golden Jubilee Anthology of Post Independence Indian poetry In English, and Poetry Society, India anthologies.
Last updated May 28, 2012