Panorama
Verbal Spectrum
Photo Mail presents
A panoramic view of
The art of photography’s
Interaction and
Interrelation with other
Art mediums such as literature
Architecture, and
Other visual media
Curated by
Ra Sh (Ravi Shanker N) and
Abul Kalam Azad
Broken Dreams © Abul Kalam Azad 2020 – 21
Body of my woman
By Ra Sh
body of my woman
emitting phosphorescent gases
with a serpent hiss
glowing green and hot over me
like a windswept flame
candles of fat dripping lava
on my seeking organs.
you are my volcano
says me whistling like
a cold arctic snowstorm
blowing from the graves
of extinct flora and fauna.
your saliva and sweat germinating
a hundred trees through
my sweat pores.
each pant, a rose
gasp, a jasmine
growls, a tamarind grove
moans, a palm forest
each gyration, a lunar tide
each bite, a new spouting spring.
you go on tattooing an eden garden
on me, in me, around me.
body of my woman
crucified on me
buried with me.
Ra Sh (aka Ravi Shanker N) is a poet and translator based in Palakkad, Kerala. He has published four collections of poetry, Architecture of Flesh (Poetrywala), Bullet Train and Other Loaded Poems (Hawakal), Kintsugi by Hadni (RLFPA) and In the Mirror, Our Graves, a chapbook with Ritamvara Bhattacharya. Ravi Shanker is also a translator whose English translations include Mother Forest (Women Unlimited), Waking is Another Dream (Navayana), Don’t Want Caste (Navayana), Kochiites (Greenex), How to Translate an Earthworm (Dhauli Books) and The Ichi Tree Monkey and new and selected stories of Bama (Speaking Tiger).
His play ‘Blind men write’ is soon to be published by Rubric Publishing, Delhi. A new collection of poems ‘Buddha and Biriyani’ is getting readied for publication. He has also written many poetry reviews for World Literature Today.
Abul Kalam Azad is an established contemporary Indian photographer, noted for his maverick experimental and conceptual works. He is the Founder Chairman of Ekalokam Trust for Photography. Abul’s photographic works are predominantly autobiographical and explore the areas of politics, culture, contemporary micro-history, gender, and eroticism. His works attempt a re-reading of contemporary Indian history – the history in which ordinary people are absent and mainly provided by beautiful images and icons. To see more works of Abul Kalam Azad check his website.
Published on October 5, 2021
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