Description

Pain permeated
places
I didn’t know
pain could permeate.
Finding pores
in peculiar places
of the past, present
and future too.

In her debut collection of poems, Lavanya Shanivarsanthe takes us through deeply interior mindscapes that come to the fore when genteel and complacent patterns of life collapse, unearthing agony and resilience. Lines such as ‘I continue to burn the crops/ and fill my heart with smoke’ and ‘Despite the eyes being open/ as dilated marbles,/ vigilant like/ a night-patrol, the light has evaded yet again’ evoke age-old realities of nature/love/quest/strength/battles, far removed from the present, hyper-connected world where things appear to be under human control, but are barely so. The key strength of Antechambers lies in the vivid images of natural adversities and the unstinted human resolve to rise and rebuild. And like a herd of bisons/ all my senses congregated/ to cross the river of blood/ without the oar of meanings. — Paulami Sengupta, author of Maximum Love in Patel Nagar

Lavanya Shanivarsanthe is a writer and poet based in Bengaluru. Following her debut short story collection, Ingress (2004), she has ventured into poetry with Antechambers.

From the Book

VII

When seeking truth
becomes raising stakes
to dramatic heights,
you know that —
that truth is an adulterant
which will sell your soul.

And it is better to let it go.

Lest it spreads like a weed,
to adorn itself along
the trellis of your tombstone.

VIII

Like a rock that sits still,
I sat through it all.
Glazed by the granules,
kissed by the mammoths,
pecked by the snails —
I sat unperturbed.
Struck by ammunitions
brought by the travesties of time,
and the betrayals of reason.
Nipped by the vultures,
nibbling on my remnants —
I sat through it all.

IX

You thought I was dead and gone.
Scattered like the ashes
in the flowing wind.
But only I was rising like the embers —
just more fiercely.

You thought I was buried —
left to be devoured by the dead
in the nether.
But I sprung like hot lava
dancing on its gossamers.

You thought I’d descend
into an irreversible madness —
with senses arrested,
paralysed prudence.
Yes, but only to find freedom
from the likes of you.

X

Five fingers, five elements —
potpourri of substances.
Never competed,
never claimed the same.
Seven oceans,
seven continents,
all thrust together
sailed far in settlements,
but never fiddled for tenements.
Yet, you ask me
to observe these norms.

To each his own —
hormones and bones.
Disown this equality,
I’d rather celebrate that
which everyone calls
a peculiarity.