Shiva's Arms

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Public Republic
2009-04-08 16:19:00
I have a new poem in one of my new favorite online magazines. Public Republic is known for its art and interviews, and its multicultural world view. The editor is Katerina Klemer, a fine poet and poet's advocate. Check out her own website.

Panguni Uttiram
2009-04-07 17:17:00
Panguni Uttiram is coming up. It's a festival celebrating the celestial marriages of Shiva, Vishnu, Rama, Murugan, and others. Observed over a ten day period, the tradition goes back to the time of the Chola King, Rajaraja Chola. Here's a video showing some of the celebration's flavor.

Interview
2009-04-03 20:39:00
For all you NaPo people working on your one-a-day, take a breather. Let's talk about me for a minute.
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Shiva's Arms on Facebook
2009-03-31 16:33:00
If you're on Facebook , come visit my fan page,with more of what you want to know about Shiva's Arms .

Red Room
2009-03-30 23:18:00
The video Belinda Subraman just made, featuring a poem and drawings from our new poetry/art collection Prisoner's Dilemma, made Red Room 's homepage ! Thanks, Red Room, and Belinda!

It's Spring Navaratri
2009-03-28 18:21:00
Here's a story, culled from the about.Hinduism site, on the origins of Vasanta Navaratri, when Hindus worship Ma Durga---(Once upon a time) King Dhruvasindu, gone hunting, was killed by a lion. Prince Sudarsana was in line for the throne, but King Yudhajit of Ujjain, the father of Queen Lilavati, and King Virasena of Kalinga, the father of Queen Manorama, each wanted the Kosala throne for their grandsons. King Virasena was killed in the battle over power, and Manorama fled to Rishi Bharadwajat, Prince Sudarsana and a eunuch in tow. So King Yudhajit crowned his grandson, Satrujit, and tried to hunt down Manorama and her son. The Rishi would not give them up. A hermit’s son came one day and called the eunuch by his Sanskrit name Kleeba. The prince Sudarsana caught the first syllable Kli and began to pronounce it as Kleem. This syllable happened to be a powerful sacred mantra, the root syllable of the Divine Mother. The Prince obtained peace of mind and the Grace of the Divine Moth...
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New Review of Multiverse
2009-03-25 18:20:00
Cheryl Snell has collaborated with her sister, Janet Snell to bring forth an astute and staggering blend of poetry, science, and art in her Multiverse collection. Cheryl probes the evolving understanding of the physical world. Mulitverse, the title, is some what of a clever winking pun. It suggests the layers in poetry relate to the layers one finds in the scientific Multiverse concept. Multiverse, in essence, is a new theory claiming there is not just one universe but several, and some Physicists now think that there may be as many as eleven dimensions co-existing at once. In Multiverse Cheryl Snell pulls the string theory from physics and applies it to poetry. With the dramatic visual accompaniment of Janet Snell’s artwork, Cheryl takes the reader on an unexpected journey through the “The Natural Order of Everything.” This first poem of the sequence begins:“It’s a trick. The sun aims wide-eyed light/though gauze breezes to filter out the truth”Grounding the scientific ...
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Fire on the Cuyahoga
2009-03-24 18:35:00
a videopoem by Belinda Subraman, with my Best of the Net poem from Prisoner's Dilemma , accompanied by Janet's art
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Prisoner's Dilemma
2009-03-22 19:25:00
A review by Nanette Rayman Rivera--- Cheryl Snell’s book: Prisoner’s Dilemma is a gorgeous, wrought book, complete with haunting artwork form her sister, Janet Snell. The book chronicles pain and dilemma, how to get through pain, what pain is. Her poems evoke mystery, reality, lyricism and in-your-face longing, hurt, tragedy an almost unstated questioning of how to get through it all. While reading this book I felt an uncanny connection to everyone: that surely, there must be others out there who have lived lives scripted mostly by loss and unspeakable hurt.CutI start with the curls,snip the dark with the silver,somersaulting to the floor.If I drop the scissors you’ll saythat one of us is unfaithful—but I’m not superstitious, and I knowthe quirks of scissors: twin armseasily uncoupled; better togetherthough crossed as swords.What is splendid about some of the poems is what could lie beneath the words. In the above poem the author never says why the hair is being cut – th...

Let's go on a Safari
2009-03-22 13:59:00
Cool article in the Post today, featuring Kerala, one of the primary locations in my novels,and coincidentally, the area my husband calls home.
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More about Prisoner's Dilemma
2009-03-18 14:37:00
If you're like me, and can't get enough of PRISONER'S DILEMMA (the book, not the problem) check Goodreads. We have a Prisoner's Dilemma page here, and another on Facebook. Come on down!

Q and A at GoodReads
2009-03-16 23:55:00
If you're on GoodReads,come visit me for a Q&A about my new book, PRISONER'S DILEMMA. I'll be on hand for two weeks to chat with you, beginning tomorrow, March 17th, hereMy sister, who did the drawings for the book will also be in the house.Hope to see you there!

Prisoner's Dilemma Launched!
2009-03-15 15:13:00
My sister Janet and I are pleased to announce the publication of our new book,PRISONER'S DILEMMA. A few details about the work:In game theory’s prisoner’s dilemma problem, two prisoners are given the choice between silence, and the betrayal of the other. The optimal choice turns out to be betrayal and therein lies the game’s paradox. In the work of the Snell sisters, the undercurrent of treachery winds its way through lyrical, narrative free verse accompanied by drawings of eccentric heads. The book opens with depictions of three wounds—Tear, Cut, and Split—and examines reactions to physical and psychological hurt. In “Tear,” the drawing of a blind-eyed head with an endless tongue, done in charcoal, illustrates the poem’s central metaphor. The tongue extends into the brain and out of the head in spikes, making manifest the synesthesia of the moment: “the way you dragged your tongue/across the metal railing, /the snow irresistible, your brother/tugging you out of y...
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Multiverse
2009-03-14 20:33:00
Here's what poet Marilyn Kallet says about Multiverse:"Cheryl Snell's poems are rich, integrative, witty, and beautifully composed."Thanks, Marilyn!

News
2009-03-14 15:07:00
The galleys for Shiva's Arms are on their way to me, as we speak. Progress! NERVEFireworks threatened to take the top off. Wet palms twitched under eruptions of happiness. Shoes by the door piled up like pups--cornered, lacestangled, tongues caught in a lie. Checkmark wings on canvas heels had been tools toward anonymity, erasing footprints where they fell, driving zigzag dogs crazy as they nipped at nothing.Judgments collected under the awning like rain, hummed against the shell of her ear. Her skull slammed in her head. Payroll hands weighed the options like so much gold. Each day had been a map of dark topographies. Turning into a skid would only postpone whatever came next. Every step along a lucky streak uncovers a foreign place tricked out with new lies and silences. Rising up to meet the path of great good fortune, she could have done more,if you want to know.
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Holi
2009-03-10 15:13:00
Today is the start of the three day harvest festival known as Holi. On the first day, Rang Pashi, a family's eldest member will sprinkle colors all around, while the women, dressed in Holi Dandia saris, make their preparations, cooking gujia and papri. Bhang and other alcoholic beverages are allowed.The colors tossed during Holi are associated with several legends. One involves Krishna and Radha. Krishna had become jealous of Radha’s fair color and his mother Yashoda suggested he change her complexion by smearing color on her. Those MILs!For more of the particulars of the holiday, see Jennifer Kumar's guest blog on the subject.I refer to this "festival of togetherness" in Shiva's Arms. Here's a peek:There was some art festival going on, exactly the kind of frivolous hippie activity he hated. Alice sat on a hillside among her paintings, her long blonde hair parted in the middle, a daisy decal on her cheek. Young men with fringed vests and flared jeans milled around, looking,...

2008 Best of the Net anthology
2009-03-06 20:03:00
I'm grateful to Dorianne Laux for choosing my poem, "Fire on the Cuyahoga" for the Sundress Best of the Net anthology
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Cruzio's Cafe
2009-03-02 05:30:00
This portrait of me, painted by my sister Janet, made it to Cruzio's Cafe , and can be seen reciting a poem here. Thanks, Beau Blue!

Still Life with Sunflowers
2009-03-01 20:04:00
Click this
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Colors
2009-02-28 14:40:00
The new anthology COLORS has just been released by Gold Wake Press. Two of my poems, Pink and Blue, are in it. Have a peek!
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Household Muse
2009-02-25 20:01:00
That's the name of a suite for piano by Darius Milhaud, but could also apply to my own house. This is the abstract for my husband's latest publication. His interest in motion camouflage inspired the making of my poem:Dying SeasonBy the time our father bolted from his sickbed to squeeze the nurse’s breast, we’d worked ourselves into a frenzy of waiting.When he fell back on the pillow, he’s sleeping, we whispered. He can’t hear our words’ mad buzz.Outside, a dragonfly, transparent wings on a blue-tinged stick, hovered above a broken cricket dragging through backyard thatch. It rose up, sudden as a mind changing, and the room sagged with breath held against the last thing we wanted to see: a pair of wings escaping, the world left out of reach.
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Shivaratri
2009-02-21 16:45:00
The 14th sloka of Shivmahimna Stotra says: "O three-eyed Lord, when the poison came up through the churning of the ocean by the gods and demons, they were all aghast with fear as if the untimely end of all creation was imminent. In your kindness, you drank all the poison that still makes your throat blue. O Lord, even this blue mark does but increase your glory. What is apparently a blemish becomes an ornament in one intent on ridding the world of fear." On Shivaratri, devotees commemorate the day Lord Shiva's throat turned blue with poison from the churning milky ocean. Even one drop in his stomach(the universe) would have annihilated the entire world, so he held it in his neck. This is also the occasion devotees celebrate the union of Shiva to Parvati, as shown in the picture above.

My Sister's Art
2009-02-18 23:46:00
Belinda Subraman is the mastermind behind this wonderful compilation. Those are her words set to my sister Janet's art.Brava!

Cotton fluffing in India
2009-02-18 15:10:00
When my husband brought me my morning coffee today (eat your hearts out, ladies!), he glanced out the window, and watched the softly falling snow for a moment. "The neighborhood looks as if the cotton-fluffer has come," he said. In India , the cotton from mattresses and pillows are periodically removed and fluffed in the manner shown above. A nice detail for my new book, maybe?
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Valentine's Day in India
2009-02-17 01:13:00
A friend of mine (thanks, Kimberly) e-mailed me this piece by Wendy Doniger, the Mircea Eliade professor of the history of religions at the University of Chicago. She has published translations of the Rig Veda and the Laws of Manu. This essay, on Valentine's Day in India , is from Sightings 2/12/09, and I thought I'd pass it along."The Sunday Times of India invited me to write something about Hindu attitudes to women for the February 8, 2009, issue, prompted both by the annual problem caused by Valentine's Day in India and by the more specific incident of violence against women that occurred just this past January. I hope that these concerns will also be of interest to readers of Sightings.The attack by a vigilante Hindu rightwing group last month, on girls in a pub in Mangalore, and their vow to assault couples marking Valentine's Day (which they identify as an instance of Western sexual license corrupting Hindu women), are examples of a problematic Hindu male attitude to wome...

New Collection
2008-11-29 18:46:00
Introducing my new chapbook, MULTIVERSE, a science-themed collection of poems with art by my sister Janet.The collection is published by Didi Mendendez, of MiPo fame, and if you'd like to buy a hard copy, click this.

Thanksgiving '08
2008-11-26 23:13:00
Two Countries by Naomi Shihab NyeSkin remembers how long the years growwhen skin is not touched, a gray tunnelof singleness, feather lost from the tailof a bird, swirling onto a step,swept away by someone who never sawit was a feather. Skin ate, walked,slept by itself, knew how to raise a see-you-later hand. But skin feltit was never seen, never known asa land on the map, nose like a city,hip like a city, gleaming dome of the mosqueand the hundred corridors of cinnamon and rope.Skin had hope, that's what skin does.Heals over the scarred place, makes a road.Love means you breathe in two countries.And skin remembers--silk, spiny grass,deep in the pocket that is skin's secret own.Even now, when skin is not alone,it remembers being alone and thanks something largerthat there are travelers, that people go placeslarger than themselves.
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The Tamil Festival of Lights...
2008-11-25 15:54:00
...features the lighting of the Karthigai Deepam. It is done in remembrance of the day Shiva came down as a column of flame with no end or beginning. On this day--December 11 this year-- he is worshiped as the element of fire.
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Collin Kelley
2008-11-24 15:30:00
Check out Collin's new YouTube Channel here. Looking good, Collin!
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Inter-caste marriage
2008-11-22 14:49:00
There's a discussion about inter-caste marriage in The Washington Post today. It features a Brahmin and Dalit couple who help other mixed couples elope. There are now government incentives to promote mixed marriages, but Prem Chowdhry, author of Contentious Marriage s, Eloping Couples, thinks that soap opera plots, Bollywood actors and cricket stars could help dismantle the caste system by starting a dialogue on the subject and its attendant scourge, honor killings.
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