umashankar manthravadi Poems

In dreams of rain or by lightning’s light I
lying on sea sand watch the cantankerous
flood bite into sand piled in a dozen
drifting years. Mud drips down leaves. Lying on
...

setting out on this wordlong journey i
have not much hope, siren silence calls me.
i'm driven by the moving meniscus
of soap on a stick, or minor breezes
...

a single secret core. if I dream now
of many possible futures it is
because I cannot clearly see a way
...

you can see where the door was
- imperfectly erased
you had drawn it yourself
the door and the house
...

that was what we heard then. something did happen
during the night. and it changed our lives.
we had slept on not wanting to listen
to uncertain noises, distant tumult
...

washed only that evening
newly hung glass lamp shades
freely swinging
dimly incandescent
...

thirty years ago, I sat at the door
and waited
as I do now
...

the other night I lifted my face and
tried to make a fist. raised myself on my
hands and arched over the gorge. but it was
(once again) a momentary effort.
...

the stork sees
reflections of its eye
in the water
broken by the waves
...

now how do you
(renege, renegotiate)
a childhood contract
not things are ideas
...