 |
| Bashabi Fraser |
For Neil
You call it
our prison yard
Where the
inmates are released
Once a day
to exercise just enough
To let the
prison doctor declare
Them fit
enough to avoid
Hospitalisation,
ready for the next
Round of
torture in their cells.
I call it
our survival circuit
Which we
enter at our pleasure
Stay as long
as we will without
Surveillance,
caressed by a mild sun
Enveloped by
a free wind, soothed
By a swatch
of colours alluring birds
Who gift us with
unsolicited melodies.
How many
Springs have gone by
When we
ignored our wee garden
And sought
the burn flowing to the lake
Where a
walkway took us amidst
A host of
gliding swans and ducks?
We were
unaware of a feast at home
Served by an
undemanding host
Of
daffodils, tulips, narcissus,
Hyacinths,
lantana and bluebells
A marvellous
spring offering.
Today the
dunnocks watch us
From our
hedge, the blackbirds
Hop across
our path, undaunted
And the
doves remind us of love.
Ganapati
at St Andrews[1]
Your impish humour is evident in your elephant
head
With its indicative size and weight, choosing a
tiny rat
As your carrier, to transport you wherever your
fancy leads.
So here you are at this sea swept University
town, holding court
On the Fife coast, with your sister Lakshmi and
brother, Kartik
On either side, surrounded by indigo and
scarlet, our patron
Of arts and science. I have seen you awakened
from tantric
Moments of meditative stillness, caught in the
rhythmic abandon
Of creative dance as the dancing Ganapati. Will
you now bless
Our every fresh venture as you rest between the
acts, your lotus
Hands holding the world's love and power as
Parvati and Shiva's son,
Our remover of all obstacles, our fortune
granting scribe, our salvation?
Note:
[1] Commissionedby the StAnza Festival to commemorate an Indian glass
painting of Ganesh in the University of St Andrews collection.
Bashabi Fraser is Professor Emerita, and a former
Professor of English and Creative Writing. She is the co-founder and Director
of the Scottish Centre of Tagore Studies and Chief Editor of the academic and
creative e-journal, Gitanjali and Beyond. Bashabi is also a Royal Literary
Fund Fellow at the University of Dundee and an Honorary Fellow at the Centre
for South Asian Studies at the University of Edinburgh. She is the author of From the Ganga to the Tay, an epic poem.
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