SHORTS
Some deaths are well-dressed
Butterflies neatly folded
Some have banners
One ragged wing banging in the wind
One by one the petals bowed
Such polite timing
We gave each its due
Now uncapped
The smiling pod seedy teeth
The old bitter-gourd
Shaking to be a rainstick
On the contrary when
You are dying you change
To prose
The family finds out who gets what
You are finally understood
(First published in Almost Island, Monsoon 2009 issue)
DROUGHT
Fruit dump under the tree
Smarting tender
Under the sore why-me look
A drool bedding noodle soup
Worm hitch
Wriggling gone from the grass no winds frisk
Collecting dry rivers
Seas
The sea was no slake
Cracked continent’s crustaceous parts drifted upcreek
Said salt of the earth
Tastes like mud
Looks like chocolate
Outgrown the fish juts
Glacier not much more than a hat tipsy on a lite draught
Blood thirsty stalks faint streets
Air wavers at mouth
Toothless the well caves in
Lips do not blossom even if they meet
The speed with which air avages the plump
Yah Yah The eerious ways of god
Hot baker’s fleur de mal
(First published in How2journal 2006)
Mani Rao’s poetry has featured in anthologies by Penguin, WW Norton and Bloodaxe. She has performed at literary festivals in Melbourne, Vancouver, Hong Kong, Singapore, Chicago and at New York PEN World Voices. Translations of her poems have been published in Latin, Italian, Korean, Chinese, Arabic, French and German. She was a Visiting Fellow at the Iowa International Writing Program in 2005 and 2009, and held the 2006 University of Iowa International Programs writer-in-residence fellowship. Rao has an MFA from the University of Nevada Las Vegas, where she currently teaches world literature. Her translation of the Bhagavad Gita will be released in 2010/2011 in USA and India, and she joins Emory University for a PhD in religious studies in Fall 2010.
About Mani Rao's latest book, Ghostmasters:
Ghostmasters is Mani Rao’s eighth book of poetry, published by Chameleon Press Hong Kong and launching at the Hong Kong Book Fair in July 2010. The poet will do a series of readings from her upcoming book at various locations over the next few months.
"There's an uncanny lightness in Mani Rao's poetry, a buoyancy that lifts the reader weightlessly to a safer place. Again and again in this wonderful book, I'm moved and gratified by the effortlessness of Rao's obedience, even as she attends the language with devoted attention. If you believe that reverence is a grave matter, this isn't the book for you. For those who understand that the contingent is our truest place on earth—start shouting "I love you Mani Rao!" — Claudia Keelan
Scheduled readings from Ghostmasters by Mani Rao:
Some deaths are well-dressed
Butterflies neatly folded
Some have banners
One ragged wing banging in the wind
One by one the petals bowed
Such polite timing
We gave each its due
Now uncapped
The smiling pod seedy teeth
The old bitter-gourd
Shaking to be a rainstick
On the contrary when
You are dying you change
To prose
The family finds out who gets what
You are finally understood
(First published in Almost Island, Monsoon 2009 issue)
DROUGHT
Fruit dump under the tree
Smarting tender
Under the sore why-me look
A drool bedding noodle soup
Worm hitch
Wriggling gone from the grass no winds frisk
Collecting dry rivers
Seas
The sea was no slake
Cracked continent’s crustaceous parts drifted upcreek
Said salt of the earth
Tastes like mud
Looks like chocolate
Outgrown the fish juts
Glacier not much more than a hat tipsy on a lite draught
Blood thirsty stalks faint streets
Air wavers at mouth
Toothless the well caves in
Lips do not blossom even if they meet
The speed with which air avages the plump
Yah Yah The eerious ways of god
Hot baker’s fleur de mal
(First published in How2journal 2006)
Mani Rao’s poetry has featured in anthologies by Penguin, WW Norton and Bloodaxe. She has performed at literary festivals in Melbourne, Vancouver, Hong Kong, Singapore, Chicago and at New York PEN World Voices. Translations of her poems have been published in Latin, Italian, Korean, Chinese, Arabic, French and German. She was a Visiting Fellow at the Iowa International Writing Program in 2005 and 2009, and held the 2006 University of Iowa International Programs writer-in-residence fellowship. Rao has an MFA from the University of Nevada Las Vegas, where she currently teaches world literature. Her translation of the Bhagavad Gita will be released in 2010/2011 in USA and India, and she joins Emory University for a PhD in religious studies in Fall 2010.
About Mani Rao's latest book, Ghostmasters:Ghostmasters is Mani Rao’s eighth book of poetry, published by Chameleon Press Hong Kong and launching at the Hong Kong Book Fair in July 2010. The poet will do a series of readings from her upcoming book at various locations over the next few months.
"There's an uncanny lightness in Mani Rao's poetry, a buoyancy that lifts the reader weightlessly to a safer place. Again and again in this wonderful book, I'm moved and gratified by the effortlessness of Rao's obedience, even as she attends the language with devoted attention. If you believe that reverence is a grave matter, this isn't the book for you. For those who understand that the contingent is our truest place on earth—start shouting "I love you Mani Rao!" — Claudia Keelan
Scheduled readings from Ghostmasters by Mani Rao:
- 27 April at Word Up! Coffee ‘n Bean, Maryland Parkway
- 2 June OutLoud Hong Kong, Fringe Club
- 29 July PEN India, Theosophy Hall
