The Soul’s Wilderness

Srinjay Chakravarti

1
An alpine peak
with its diadem of snow,
and a solitary mountaineer
abseils down the slope
leaning against the cloud-marbled sky.

2
The parajumper’s
heart in his mouth,
on the brink of surrender.

Earth’s turntable
rotates its mosaic of
trees farms fields houses
green yellow brown white

a landscape corrugated
with canals and streams
till his feet, turning -
a record needle
pointing in vertiginous axis.

3
A shark’s toothy smile.

The sharp sting
of an electric ray shimmers in its whiplash.

An octopus stretches out
eight handshakes.

The diver descends,
his eye’s lustre
seeking that of a pearl’s -

underwater, the loneliness
of scouring the sea-bed
for death to yield
its meagre treasures.

4
Screeching tyres scatter
a bouquet of sparks

Wind-roar
in the ears,
or blood:

pebble on a slingshot,
the tight arc
on the circumference
of the arena.

The motocross driver’s
essential aloneness
with only acceleration
and adrenaline
for company.

5
Machete in hand,
the poet makes
slow weary progress
through the foliage
and treacherous undergrowth.

Following the spoor
of words,
to where it leads on:
lair of wolf tiger lion

all alone with the darkness
of the midnight hunt.

Poems copyright © 2003 Srinjay Chakravarti

back    /     to the top

© Kopiereg in die ontwerp en inhoud van hierdie webruimte behoort aan LitNet, uitgesluit die kopiereg in bydraes wat berus by die outeurs wat sodanige bydraes verskaf. LitNet streef na die plasing van oorspronklike materiaal en na die oop en onbeperkte uitruil van idees en menings. Die menings van bydraers tot hierdie werftuiste is dus hul eie en weerspieël nie noodwendig die mening van die redaksie en bestuur van LitNet nie. LitNet kan ongelukkig ook nie waarborg dat hierdie diens ononderbroke of foutloos sal wees nie en gebruikers wat steun op inligting wat hier verskaf word, doen dit op hul eie risiko. Media24, M-Web, Ligitprops 3042 BK en die bestuur en redaksie van LitNet aanvaar derhalwe geen aanspreeklikheid vir enige regstreekse of onregstreekse verlies of skade wat uit sodanige bydraes of die verskaffing van hierdie diens spruit nie. LitNet is ’n onafhanklike joernaal op die Internet, en word as gesamentlike onderneming deur Ligitprops 3042 BK en Media24 bedryf.