AN INTRODUCTION ~ BY KAMALA DAS
I don’t know politics but I know the names
Of those in power, and can repeat them like
Days of week, or names of months, beginning with Nehru.
I don’t know politics but I know the names
Of those in power, and can repeat them like
Days of week, or names of months, beginning with Nehru.
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
On either side the river lie
Long fields of barley and of rye,
That clothe the wold and meet the sky;
I remember the night my mother
was stung by a scorpion. Ten hours
of steady rain had driven him
In Madurai,
city of temples and poets,
who sang of cities and temples,
Because I could not stop for Death –He kindly stopped for me –
The Carriage held but just Ourselves –
And Immortality.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.
We wear the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,—
This debt we pay to human guile;
You were sweet and small and I didn’t know you at all-
Under your mask you became part of it all-
The winter will befall upon our youth,
We will lose the spring of our vigour
A sheer dullness shall have its firm growth,