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English
Poetry
Anthology - Poems from
Auroville
Auropublications 1977
(oop)
There is no arguing about
anthologies. In the end you choose. I keep going back to the poem 'To
Mick', by Kevan Myers.
Still, "Poems of Auroville" makes good reading.
The theme of inner seeking, and finding, runs through most of the poems,
but neither in the vein of hymn or prayer. Actually, 'To Mick' reads as a
prose poem, amongst what is mostly modern poetry. Published in 1977, when
Aurovilians were yet few, the anthology shows that there were many
talented writers among those few.
Gorden Korstange - The road
behind whitens in the sun
Writers Workshop 1984
(oop-ca)
Korstange is clear in his first
poem. This is a volume of poetry dedicated to scholarship. Not the poetry
of 'digging tools', but a 'digging in the real stuff'. At that it is a
collection of prose poems, many describing India and its people, and what
cultural research has taught the poet about these people. Sometimes the
insight into the culture enhances what is written, but at other times it
seems that research has created a gap between the writer and his subject.
Then the language becomes too careful in describing such simple things as
digging tools, or unsure in the face of India's vast culture. Still, there
are enough spontaneous lines in the book rendering a good idea of
pioneering in Auroville, India.
Anthology - Dust and
Dreams
SAIIER 1985 (oop)
This anthology is a corsage of
poems in five languages. They are not many, with as a result that - unless
you master all the languages - the anthology falls short. There is not
enough to carry the reader off, what with styles changing.
One thing,
this book could only have been published in Auroville, combining cultures
in their own languages. As a brochure it points out, in a well-designed
way, that there is serious writing going on in Auroville.
Auroluigi - Sun-fire
kisses
Amity House 1988
(oop?)
"The dynamic drive of sun-fire
burning to make real what we dream of, is the spirit and stuff my poems
are made of".
And like fire, the poems reveal, are revelations, often
in a classical epic tone. Is it the German background of the writer that
lends the poems some of the loftiness that goes with this stately genre?
The book contains various odes to The Mother and Sri Aurobindo, in a
choice of words that echoes the master in both his poetry and teachings of
the integral yoga.
Marti - My mother is the
wind
Shanta 1989 (oop-ca)
This is the first of Mart's
volumes of poems that have living in India as a background, for a writer
who delights in dreaming. In many ways it reads as the forerunner of 'We
are one body' (1996). There is as yet a distance between the poet and the
culture, as if the modern flow of the words struggles with the rhythm that
is India.
Some of the poems are given conclusive lines - as might be
written by teachers - and would have come out better without this added
touch of scholarship. As a collection of dreams it holds well.
Marti
runs Shanta Publications, publishing Auroville poets and series of
environmental booklets for children, for which she does the
illustrations.
Marti - Black pines, white
waves
Shanta 1992 (oop-ca)
As a collection of meditations
on Japan, the poems in this book are preceded by a haiku by Basho. The
sparse writing relates about observations during a retreat, in the
Japanese setting of monasteries, pagodas and hills drenched in dew and
rain. Rather that haikus, and other forms of Japanese poetry that these
poems have been modeled upon, some of the poems read like modern camera
snap-shots of both live flowers and dreams.
Anu Majumdar - Mobile
Hour
Auroville Press 1993
(oop-ca)
'Mobile Hour' breathes the
atmosphere of an Odyssey, the travelogue of a vigorous new nomadic tribe.
Anu uses what themes old mythology has left us, in an assured,
contemporary way. The result is a book that is well conceived as a whole,
as well as in the details of the writing. It is a sure book about
aspirations, in that Anu left out the question marks that tend to go with
expressions of hope.
Apart from writing poetry, Anu does dance and
choreography, having staged various performances in and outside of
Auroville.
Pavitra - A Fire (Un Feu)
Private 1993 (oop-ca)
The birth and the waning and
waxing of fire, around us, within us. The still flame, and the flame in
the wind; the flame behind the flame.
Keeping the metaphor of fire in
mind, Pavitra often returns to the image of the child. The adult child
caught in the glow of a candle, roaming in thought from one subject to the
next. The volume reads as an inner dialogue that does not hesitate to draw
in seemingly insignificant outside facts, which are often presented in
cinematic views, rather than dream-like visions.
L. Kenneth Fator - Selected
Poems 1989-1993 & Trek
Jyotishika Press 1993
(oop-ca)
The world of 'Trek' is a man's
world, and at that not always a nice one. The theme of the trek often
lends the poetry an aura of survival; the author witnessing survival, as a
traveling onlooker who would leave dry interpretations of events to
scholars. The result is bold contemporary poetry, in a large variety of
styles. Sometimes it seems as if two voices battle within the poet, that
of the modern observer and that of the classical mode, the voice that
ponders. Still, in both styles there are enough highlights to make the
whole of the book memorable reading.
Bindu
& Mirek: The singing, the loving & the growing
Writers
Workshop Calcutta - 1994. (oop)
It
is a bit difficult to sort out the poems by Bindu in this book, since they
have been freely mixed with those of Mirek, whose relations to Auroville
remain unknown. Bindu’s modern and realistic poems are mostly divided
between the themes of love and the significance of being born in India. In
both categories she proves herself to be a sharp observer of her own
feelings towards men, as well as the culture to which she is born. A
simple but effective use of metaphor gives the poems a very convincing
ring.
During
the last years, Bindu has contributed many articles to Auroville Today.
Vitthal - A tail of
tales
Shanta 1994 (oop-ca)
The word play in the title of
this collection of modern fables aptly covers what the reader may find
within. The stories veer from the realm of fable to that of Eastern
parable and back. The result is a witty book for children of all ages,
filled with the deeper reflections of many specimens who are I the
possession of tails, with the addition of a funny variety of humans and a
frog.
On its appearance the book instantly became a favorite among
Auroville children.
Lloyd Hofman - But for the
Breeze
Shanta 1996 (oop-ca)
Not my turf as a reviewer,
since I wrote this booklet. Suffice to say that it is a mixture of poems
on nature and love. I have often heard it say that they have a Japanese or
Zen ring to them, but short as the poems are, their briefness is more due
to my liking of Spanish poetry.
All in all, the book contains vital
modern verse and true to life reflections.
Marti - We are one
body
Shanta 1996 (oop-ca)
These poems about the inner and
outer cosmos to our being have been grafted on Indian culture. There are
songs of praise, interspersed by mantras and dedications to goddesses from
Hindu mythology. And among the dreams that are described, there is
Auroville, Matrimandir.
Still, in the treatment of these themes the
poetry is brief in a contemporary way.
Auro Satprem - Quest for the
Divine
Private (oop-ca)
The Divine, the Dawn and Peace
are among the inspirations for this collection of poems that breathes an
urging, the telling of a simple truth. "Easy to be picked up by the
reader", is what the writer seems to say, though he is well aware that
often the easiest things give humanity the most of troubles. There are
also poems in which the writer uses the above terms of truth for
introspection, trying to answer questions about living in The Dream of The
Mother. Many of the poems are celebrations or dedications.
Anu Majumdar - Light
Matter
Auroville Press 1998
"Light Matter" is a collection
of 'word palaces for he Kingdom of the Soul'. The texts were written as
part of an Auroville installation by Pierre LeGrand, and as such partake
in one event consisting of visual art, music and poetry.
The book
contains three selections: "Ultra Light", "Architectures of Light" and
"Light Matter". It is a powerful tribute to the light of the soul, the
light in a smile and light as substance. The last may sound strange, but
on finishing the collection it is as if you can actually conceive of light
as a substance.
L. Kenneth Fator - Ark II
poems 1994-1998 & Grand Cru in Plastic Cups
Brandy-Wine Press
Ltd. 1998
Fator's second book of poems
shows us his capacity for ribaldry, in poems that are more akin to prose
than those in his first volume. He is again not intent on showing us the
world as one would like to see it, and lets his humor match the less
attractive side of mankind. Which is not to say that there is not a
subtler Fator to be found in this book, but the majority of the poems give
us a widening in scope of the humoristic tone with which we became
accustomed in his Collected Poems.
Meenakshi - Another
Journey
Shanta Books - 1998
This is a bi-lingual edition of
poems in English and Tamil. Adapted by Marti and professor M.L. Thangappa
it has illustrations by the Auroville artist Vahula.
Meenakshi's poems
never stray far from her house and her garden, but somehow show how vast a
small garden can be. Nor is the garden devoid of people. The combination
of poems on both nature and people give onto a very nice insight in the
Tamil culture. At that the illustrations of Vahula are simple but
clarifying for those who do not live in Auroville.
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