Shiva's Arms

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Narasimha Jayanthi
2008-05-17 14:11:00
One of the stories I used in Shiva's Arms involves Narasimha, the fourth of the ten avatars of Vishnu. Narasimha Jayanthi is celebrated today, and commemorates, through fasting, prayer and the giving of alms, the day Narasimha protected his devotee Prahlada from his father, the demon/king Hiranyakashipu. The demon could not be killed by man or beast or weapon, and with this immunity, he had conquered heaven and earth and declared himself God. Hiranyakasipu’s son, Prahlāda, was a Vishnu devotee and would not worship his father. So Hiranyakasipu tried to kill him, but the boy escaped. Finally, Hiranyakasipu pointed out a stone pillar, and asked, ‘If your god is omnipresent, is he in this pillar also?’ Prahlad answered, ‘He is present in the pillar and even in the rust.’ Hiranyakasipu slashed the pillar with a sword in response, and Vishnu emerged and killed him using the method shown in the pic.

Before the Rains
2008-05-16 16:11:00
"Before the Rains," director Santosh Sivan's drama set in 1937 India, is a hodgepodge in the raj -- a predictable patchwork of forbidden romance, English arrogance, a gun given as a gift, suicide, corruption, deception, rising Indian nationalism and a short-lived chase through the jungle. So begins the Post's review. It may not make you want to see this film, especially after Sivan's The Terrorist, but observations like this can be found at his website:I wanted to understand and treat her face like a landscape.For an interview with the director click this.

Adroitly Placed Word
2008-05-14 15:45:00
My husband and I made the pages of The Adroitly Placed Word ! He reads three poems from my chapbook, Samsara.

Tere Mere Sapne ab ek rang hai
2008-05-14 14:36:00
I was serenaded by this song this morning. "Your and my dreams are the same color, o my friend for life." Lucky girl.

Transitions
2008-05-11 15:42:00
“Do You Have Any Advice For Those of Us Just Starting Out?"Give up sitting dutifully at your desk. Leaveyour house or apartment. Go out into the world.It's all right to carry a notebook but a cheapone is best, with pages the color of weak teaand on the front a kitten or a space ship.Avoid any enclosed space where more thanthree people are wearing turtlenecks. Bewareany snow-covered chalet with deer tracksacross the muffled tennis courts.Not surprisingly, libraries are a good place to write.And the perfect place in a library is near an aislewhere a child a year or two old is playing as hismother browses the ranks of the dead.Often he will pull books from the bottom shelf.The title, the author's name, the brooding photoon the flap mean nothing. Red book on black, graybook on brown, he builds a tower. And the higherit gets, the wider he grins.You who asked for advice, listen: When the towerfalls, be like that child. Laugh so loud everybodyin the world frowns and says, "Shhhh."Then ...
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Lopside Press
2008-05-09 16:44:00
My new poetry collection, Prisoner's Dilemma, won the chapbook contest sponsored by Lopside Press !The book, with drawings by the talented Janet Snell, will be out in July.

TGIF
2008-05-09 16:29:00
My friend Kathi sent me this list --The Washington Post's winning submissions to its yearly contest, in which readers were asked to supply alternate meanings for common words. Gotta love it--1. coffee, n. the person upon whom one coughs. 2. flabbergasted, adj. appalled by discovering how much weight one has gained. 3. abdicate, v. to give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach. 4. esplanade, v. to attempt an explanation while drunk. 5. willy-nilly, adj. impotent. 6. negligent, adj. absentmindedly answering the door when wearing only anightgown. 7. lymph, v. to walk with a lisp. 8. gargoyle, n. olive-flavored mouthwash. 9. flatulence, n. emergency vehicle that picks up someone who has been run over by a steamroller. 10. balderdash, n. a rapidly receding hairline. 11. testicle, n. a humorous question on an exam. 12. rectitude, n. the formal, dignified bearing adopted by proctologists. 13. pokemon, n. a Rastafarian proctologist. 14. oyster, n. a person who sprinkles his conversatio...

What are you doing Friday night?
2008-05-08 17:53:00
The Writer's Center (4508 Walsh Street, Bethesda, MD 20815 Phone: 301 654-8664)has a suggestion--32 Poems Magazine, The Caribbean,and the Writer's Center join together to bring you an evening of poetry from Sandra Beasley and Bernadette Geyer. Free admission. 8-10 PM. Sandra Beasley is the recipient of the 2008 Maureen Egen Writers Exchange Award from Poets & Writers magazine and her collection, Theories of Falling, won the 2007 New Issues Poetry Prize and was published in April 2008. Her work has appeared in numerous journals.Bernadette Geyer is a poet and freelance writer/editor in the Washington, DC, area. Her poetry chapbook, What Remains, was published in 2001 by Argonne House Press. Her full-length manuscript, The Inheritance (formerly called Dead Men), was a finalist for the Ohio State University Press/The Journal Poetry Prize and for the Richard Snyder Memorial Publication Prize from Ashland Poetry Press.See you there!
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Meme for the End of NaPoWriMo
2008-05-06 21:16:00
Questions from January's blogNumber of poems written in April.-thirty, plus some scrapsNumber of poems you’ll keep and revise.-twenty sevenList the titles of your top three NaPoWriMo poems.-Eclipse, Spent,VeinList your three least favorite NaPoWriMo poems.-It's Over,Bite, and the finale, which was a challenge using three lines of somebody else's poem. I don't feel that one really belongs to me.Favorite line from one of your NaPoWriMo poems.-Things like that/should be packed away in a trunk, hidden/ in the back of a truck/ someplace where people/ are unshaken by the sight of a bloody sky,/ who take each other onto the lawn to watch it bleed. Favorite poem by a NaPoWriMo participant.-She Adds a Dash of Cumin to Lucky Pea Soup, by Kelli AgodonWhat surprised you most about writing a poem a day?-This is my third time, so the sensation of being intensely alone with blank paper every single day was familiar.Now that you’ve started the momentum, what’s next?-I have a new book of p...
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Are These Words Too Poetic for You?
2008-05-05 16:45:00
abyss angels arms believe birth blade bleed commitment deep descend die fake freedom fright god hal headstone hope illusion innocence kill life lord mirror nightmare numb passion pierce quest rain razor reality sacred scared secret skin title unspoken void wilt worthless created at TagCrowd.com
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Work
2008-05-04 17:05:00
A reprint of my poem "Work " appears in the new Quill & Parchment. Just so you know...

Ramayana
2008-05-02 00:13:00
Neil Gaiman talks about his film treatment of Ramayana to Ravi Swami, animator, film maker and recent judge at the British Animation Awards in this podcast. Click the title.

What We Already Knew
2008-04-30 18:51:00
My review of Rick Cannon's poetry collection, What We Already Knew is up now at the Gaz.The book won the 2006 chapbook competition from Sheltering Pine Press. The final judge,Lola Haskins says,"I love WHAT WE ALREADY KNEW because it does something very difficult, makes the human being behind it manifest. I admire its humility, its economy, its talented juxtaposition of simple words, and above all its air of compassion."The author, a graduate of Georgetown University and the University of Iowa's Writer's Workshop, has taught English at Gonzaga College High School and as an adjunct at Trinity College, for the past 27 years. He and his wife of three decades are the parents of five children and live in Silver Spring, MD. His poems have appeared in dozens of periodicals, and he has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. This is his third chapbook.

Kazim Ali
2008-04-27 17:38:00
Heads up, people--Kazim Ali's new book, The Fortieth Day, is out now from BOA Editions.This is what Donald Revell has to say about it:In The Fortieth Day, every poem keeps an exquisite and undistracted vigil, wholly devoted to the contours of each moment. These vigils are rewarded amply, as Time itself unfolds its secrets to Ali. To read this book is to see new colors in a new depth.

Akshaya Tritiya
2008-04-26 15:38:00
In addition to the particulars in the video, Akshay Tritiya also marks the beginning of the SatyaYug --the Golden Age - the first of the four Yugas. In the Puranas, it says that, on Akshay Tritiya, Vedavyas (along with Lord Ganesha) began to write the Mahabharata.

Chitra Poornima
2008-04-23 18:12:00
Chitra Poornima is the birthday of Chitragupta who tracks virtues and sins. Legend has it that Indra, on incurring sin, came to earth in quest of propitiation, and saw a Shiva linga under a kadamba tree by the side of a pond. With lotuses gathered from the pond, he worshipped the Shiva linga, and was redeemed. He promptly had a temple constructed at the site. The day Indra was cleansed of his sin was Chitra Poornima, and the temple was the Meenakshi temple in Madurai, pictured with a view of the sacred pond.

Rupa Marya
2008-04-21 15:24:00
an american in paris by dr.rupa maryathere were a few silent daysi didn’t say a wordand then i met you here in parissitting next to me in a bistroyou come from Algiersi come from san franciscoa world between usyou asked mearen’t you afraid to be an american in pariswith all these angry arabs?i said no. i’m not an americanyou are not an arab and we are not in parisa crazy world between uswhat do you think of all of this?what do you think of these stories?these stories make us crazyyou asked me if you could a photo with mei said no thank you, no photo, i prefer lifei’m not an american, you are not an arabwe are not in paris, we are in lifea crazy world between us

Cricket and PomPoms
2008-04-19 13:12:00
Emily Wax has a story in today's Post, about Redskins cheerleaders at a cricket game in India. One Indian news man said,"Sexuality and cricket is the way forward. And it's time India wakes up to the fact that it's a different society. It's a modern society. There's no use keeping it all under wraps." All righty then.
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Bethesda Literary Festival
2008-04-18 14:28:00
It's that time again--the Bethesda Literary Festival is happening all over town this weekend. Click this for details.

My Blueberry Nights
2008-04-15 01:09:00
Singer/songwriter Nora Jones in her first film. The Indian connection? She's a daughter of Ravi Shankar.
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Kaineetam
2008-04-13 18:35:00
Our friend Jennifer Kumar graciously sent this link along to help us understand the nuances of Vishu, the New Year celebration we are observing now. My husband tells me that as a child, he and his siblings looked forward to the tradition of the elder family members giving the younger ones a coin. In his case, the coveted coin was a King George V silver rupee from 1915. The coin-giving part of Vishu is called Kaineetam, and the actual coin from my husband's family is pictured above.Vishu Ashamsakal!

Satyagraha
2008-04-13 00:27:00
This is an excerpt from Phillip Glass’s modernist opera, “Satyagraha,” which is playing at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York until May 1. The libretto uses the Bhagavad-Gita as a source. See it if you can.

more about വിദ്യാരംഭം
2008-04-11 15:38:00
Here's how Wiki describes what you just saw: "The ceremony of Vidyarambham (Vidya means "knowledge" , arambham means "beginning') for the children is held on Vijayadashami (the last day of Navaratri) day...Initiation into the world of alphabets usually begins with the writing of the mantra "Om hari sri ganapataye namah"(ഓം ഹരി ശ്രീ ഗണപതയേ നമഃ) Hari(ഹരി) refers to the Lord, sri(ശ്രീ), to prosperity. Initially, the mantra is written on sand or in a tray of rice grains. Then, the master would write the mantra on the child's tongue with gold. Writing on sand denotes practice. Writing on grains denotes the acquisition of knowledge, which leads to prosperity. Writing on the tongue with gold invokes the grace of the Goddess of Learning, by which one attains the wealth of true knowledge." This is my poem, from Samsara, inspired by Navaratri and variations on Saraswati puja: Puja1.my son the youngest sonof a scholarbooks on the altarhis o...

Vidyarambham
2008-04-10 00:12:00
Jennifer Kumar, who wrote a lovely guest blog for us recently, sent me this video of Vidyarambham --the ceremony of initiating children into the world of letters, as practised in Kerala. Enjoy!

Pulitzers
2008-04-08 17:12:00
Check out this page for details on the prizes for Junot Diaz and Robert Hass and Bob Dylan, among others.

Ugadi
2008-04-08 00:26:00
It's the Telugu New Year, and among other rituals, people eat the foods shown in the photo. These particular foods, referred to as Ugadi Pachhadi, symbolize the fact that life is a mixture of sadness, happiness, anger, fear, disgust, and surprise, and we should accept it all:Neem buds/flowers for bitterness Raw mango for tang Tamarind juice for sourness Green chili/Pepper for heat Jaggery for sweetness Pinch of salt for saltiness Recitations of the religious almanac, Panchangam, are broadcast on TV during this festival, and the celebration also includes literary discussions, poetry readings and recitals of Carnatic music.

Against the Grain
2008-04-03 17:28:00
Venerable poet Reed Whittemore is the subject of an article by Bob Thompson in today's Post. For seven responses to the Maryland poet's third person memoir, click this.
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Quote of the Day
2008-04-02 22:45:00
"If you ask me what I came into this life to do, I will tell you: I came to live out loud."---Emile Zola, born on this day in 1840.
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NaPoWriMo
2008-04-01 15:17:00
Anyone joining in? Over at the Gaz, we've got some takers. I'm still not fully committed--my novel-in-progress is sopping up my creative juices. Yesterday, I spent hours twining a suplot around the main plot, trying to make it affect the end of the story. I read somewhere about a poet who could no longer write poetry once she began to write novels--the fight between image and the pull of the narrative, see. Well, as Nana always said, "don't borrow trouble, dear."

Baseball
2008-03-31 15:25:00
DC's first exhibition game of the season was played yesterday in the new Nationals Park. Here's my tribute-- A Small Perturbation in the Stands Shock rocked the stadiumthe day the pitcher struck out the seagull.Someone flipped a fair coin into thin air. Its glint bribed the sky with false promises.When the bird dropped from a flock overheadwings fanned the coin ambiguously.Heads or tails? No one could have predicted such perfect syzygy of bird ball and bat! The pitcher’s true arm waylaid tried instinctswith a powerhouse thwack. A flutter of feathers sprayed the uppermost sky as if a pillow had been shot.Mathematicians & gambling men know: the rarer the event the larger the deviation.From the norm? From what’s true? The long hard jock begs the question from the back of his stretch limousine.Sometimes the sky holds up an unlikely blue moon.Sometimes coincidence slides into home plateof the miraculous.(from Epithalamion, Little Poem Press, 2004)
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