Contemporary Poets in Indian English-8
Tishani Doshi, from Chennai, is an awarded poet of distinction, a journalist and a dancer too. Her poems reflect modernist use of images and symbols effectively to express intense ideas. In the poem “Rain at Three” she describes sudden raining and the drenching of bed and pillows.
Also read: Arundhati Subramaniam
She talks of ‘weeds we pulled up yesterday’. Weeds here are the unpleasant experiences of the past which we try to remove from our mind. Time allows them to die but we cannot wait till then. So we act to remove them ourselves. We try to keep our body clean and live a life of no emotions, ‘wooden body’ in the present.
Also read: Jeet Thayil
But we are not wood. We turn inwards and again there aremany positive things which move us. So we go ‘on our knees’ to gather the hibiscus petals passionately. The poet suggests that we undergo a curious cycle of desiring and undesiring when she says ‘splintering first, then joining’.
Also read: Shiv Kumar
We want to forget the unpleasant past but along with it pleasant things of the past also get shattered. We need to gather our pleasant things (petals) again and preserve them. Spiritual progress also starts with analysis and evolves into synthesis.
Also read: Keiki Daruwala
Also read: Jayant Mahapatra
Also read: Nissim Ezekiel
Also read: A. K. Ramanujan
