Hello my lovely people
I’m back and still reluctant to sink into regular life. How wonderful it would be if life was a poetry festival! But then, anything permanent loses charm, I suppose. Anyway, longer posts about Poetry Africa and Kruger National Park coming up soon but in the meantime, two bits of news that made me happy as soon as I got home:
Ultra Violet has been featured in the feminist magazine make/shift. Mostly good stuff but they have said the site would benefit from a greater variety of voices, something I entirely agree with. So please, please, spread the word and ask people (men and women) to contribute with their stories, essays, poems, vignettes, whatever. No bars whatsoever. I received a copy of the magazine and it looks really good. Do consider subscribing.
Also, my poem ‘The Kitchen God’s Mistress’ has been republished in the latest issue of A cappella Zoo. (It’s been published previously in the anthology Not A Muse by Haven Books). I don’t think I’m going to send it anywhere else so here it is:
The Kitchen God’s Mistress
Did you always smell of cinnamon?
It reminded me of a long-ago kitchen.
Mustard seeds. Mutton crackle. Hot air
condensed on window mesh while I shelled peas
on stone cool enough for sleep.
I should have barred the doors
when you nuzzled in
but a weakness for spices and memory
stopped me. Besides, I glimpsed
your feet, smooth and brown, with an arch
I could fit into. The night you drowned,
I was deveining prawns and drinking beer. I thought
it would be like any other night: we’d chew
slowly, listen to the cicadas sing. Later,
they would leap indoors and crawl
under our bed where we lay side by side
in the dark, entering each other’s dreams.
I was so happy watching the kitchen
simmer in pools of light. How could I know
they would gulp you down without a ripple?
And who would have thought you’d be so
hard to pull out? You always looked so light
with your thin beard and gossamer cap.
***
October 15th, 2009 at 11:54 PM
Congrats on the pub. : )
October 16th, 2009 at 1:37 PM
Excellent stuff this is.
It somehow reads in my head like a poem at a slam.
(Maybe I have been watching too of def poetry jam)
October 16th, 2009 at 4:37 PM
much*
October 20th, 2009 at 1:58 PM
@Aditi, Sche: Thank you. Slam…nah, I can’t do that. But read my latest post to read / listen to someone who can.
October 20th, 2009 at 7:14 PM
dear A…i get caughtin your threads and want to be tied up more!!! don’t forget to send me some of the words i missed on fri night….or post them on my FB site!!
)) to Bangalore with love from Dala-Floda!!
October 20th, 2009 at 10:40 PM
Oh Jennifer, I will send you the poems as soon I get over my shyness which strikes ever so often. I’m guessing you guys are back in Sweden…and I’m so happy to get your myspace link–you know, I lost that paper (again) and looked and looked online. Now I can include it in the post on Poetry Africa.