Point No Point

Selected Poems

Sujata Bhatt

• Publisher: Carcanet Poetry
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781857543063
• eBook ISBN: 9781847775689
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: European Poetry
• Index: Literature

Sujata Bhatt's first book of poems, the award-winning Brunizem, appeared in 1988. Her poems deal with issues about her native India and her native tongue (Gujarati), America and Britain, and Germany where she now lives. Language, politics and gender, place and history are key themes that emerge in this work. Hers is a remarkable complete imagination, generous and at the same time unsparingly severe in its quest for the difficult truths of experience.

from
THE STINKING ROSE

The One Who Goes Away

There are always, in each of us,

these two: the one who stays,

the one who goes away –

Eleanor Wilner

But I am the one

who always goes away.

The first time was the most –

was the most

silent.

I did not speak,

did not answer

those who stood waving

with the soft noise

of saris flapping in the wind.

To help the journey

coconuts were flung

from Juhu beach

into the Arabian Sea –

But I saw beggars jump in

after those coconuts – a good catch

for dinner. And in the end

who gets the true luck

from those sacrificed coconuts?

I am the one

who always goes away.

Sometimes I’m asked if

I were searching for a place

that can keep my soul

from wandering

a place where I can stay

without wanting to leave.

Who knows.

Maybe the joy lies

in always being able to leave –

But I never left home.

I carried it away

with me – here in my darkness

in myself. If I go back, retrace my steps

I will not find

that first home anywhere outside

in that mother-land place.

We weren’t allowed

to take much

but I managed to hide

my home behind my heart.

Look at the deserted beach

now it’s dusk – no sun

to turn the waves gold,

no moon to catch

the waves in silver mesh –

Look

at the in-between darkness

when the sea is unmasked

she’s no beauty queen.

Now the wind stops

beating around the bush –

While the earth calls

and the hearth calls

come back, come back –

I am the one

who always goes away.

Because I must –

with my home intact

but always changing

so the windows don’t match

the doors anymore – the colours

clash in the garden –

And the ocean lives in the bedroom.

I am the one

who always goes

away with my home

which can only stay inside

in my blood – ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Point No Point
• from BRUNIZEM
• from MONKEY SHADOWS
• from THE STINKING ROSE
• Notes
• Also by Sujata Bhatt from Carcanet
• Copyright