by Srimati Lal
THE WARRIORS
We walked
Face to face Alone Knowing no difference
anymore Having reached the
end at last,
We were We had seen all, Been through We'd watched all the
fun Had revealed In all its
On battlefields And justifications
of sin Yet, this curve of
blossoms remains: Retaining purity Retaining goodness And feeling nothing And some softly-varied
nuzzlings Recreating So that there will
be new songs On our battlefields of lust
When I recall my youth; Lights glinting in
the night sky;
...Words with sharp
edges of distrust, You loved me, with all this: Were drawn
...Pride is a dark
flame, in this night:
Vileness is so full As we women now, proudly, ...Of our age's history
Wind, bend Cold lake,
Grasses moist Speak to me: Tell me these streets
will live again,
...Oh dream of ice This my lake, Let there be flowers Let flowers fill
Come to me in the morning Smile your flower-smile And tell me Tell me As free ...Your smile is sweet, ... Come, tell me
A wild red rose blooming Thorned branches striving
upwards,
Come with me; Come, search with
me We shall find Him,
together,
... We shall find
our lost child again here, Made mad by our separation And craving our re-union, ... Speaking to us
in his soul In all the tortured
rhythms
... And his beauty
will be awesome, He shall be our completeness, We will never lose
Him Ever again |
A D D
E N D A :
The writer no longer uses her New Delhi studio in Nizamuddin. Her studio in New York is at: 148
West 67th Street, Apt. 12, Calcutta Studio: Writers
Workshop,
N O T E S : SIX POEMS was published in April 1997 and released at Hartnoll's Gallery, London, on the occasion of a first solo exhibition by Srimati Lal in London. The paintings in the Hartnoll's Gallery exhibition were done over a period of 16 years in Europe, America and India. The chemical paintings were done in New York between 1993 and 1997. Several canvasses and mixed-media works were done in Paris, New York and New Delhi over the same period. The paintings on show were personally selected by Julian Hartnoll over two visits in 1996 and 1997 to Srimati Lal's Nizamuddin loft. The artist had previously exhibited her work in major group shows in Maryland, USA, in 1983 (SPRING TREE, INDIAN MARKET); at the National Gallery in New Delhi in 1994 (A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST, RAJASTHAN BLUE); and at the Academy of Fine Arts in Calcutta in 1981 (TREES OF SPRING, SUMMER, MONSOON, and WINTER). The drawing entitled THE WINDOW (1982) was first used as the illustration for a play written by Srimati Lal entitled THE WINDOW: A DIALOGUE, published by Writers Workshop, Calcutta, in 1984 and performed there. The poems THE WARRIORS, OF OUR AGE'S HISTORY and A WILD RED ROSE BLOOMING have been published for the first time in this volume. The other three lyrics were first published by Writers Workshop, Calcutta, in Srimati Lal's THE WINDOW and OTHER POEMS, 1984. All international copyrights reserved by the author. No portion of this volume or gallery catalog may be reproduced without written permission from the artist and writer Srimati Lal. |