Selected Poems 

Hello, I am Emisha Ravani, writing this blog as a thinking activity which is given by Yesha Bhatt madam. In this we have to do very unique tasks like creating a literary excerpt in a such way. We have to pick up any  one line/word/phrase/thought/idea from the poem An Introduction by Kamala Das. 

Kamala Das is a literary figure as well as Indian poet from Kerala. She was noted for her several Malayalam short stories as well as poems written in English. Das was also a syndicated columnist. She once claimed that "poetry does not sell in this country [India]", but her forthright columns, which sounded off on everything from women's issues and child care to politics, were popular. Das was a confessional poet whose poems have often been considered at par with those of Anne Sexton and Robert Lowell.

Now, We will have a look towards her poem 'An Introduction'. 

Kamala Das - An Introduction

I don't know politics but I know the names

Of those in power, and can repeat them like

Days of week, or names of months, beginning with Nehru.

I am Indian, very brown, born in Malabar,

I speak three languages, write in

Two, dream in one.

Don't write in English, they said, English is

Not your mother-tongue. Why not leave

Me alone, critics, friends, visiting cousins,

Every one of you? Why not let me speak in

Any language I like? The language I speak,

Becomes mine, its distortions, its queernesses

All mine, mine alone.

It is half English, halfIndian, funny perhaps, but it is honest,

It is as human as I am human, don't

You see? It voices my joys, my longings, my

Hopes, and it is useful to me as cawing

Is to crows or roaring to the lions, it

Is human speech, the speech of the mind that is

Here and not there, a mind that sees and hears and

Is aware. Not the deaf, blind speech

Of trees in storm or of monsoon clouds or of rain or the

Incoherent mutterings of the blazing

Funeral pyre. I was child, and later they

Told me I grew, for I became tall, my limbs

Swelled and one or two places sprouted hair.

WhenI asked for love, not knowing what else to ask

For, he drew a youth of sixteen into the

Bedroom and closed the door, He did not beat me

But my sad woman-body felt so beaten.

The weight of my breasts and womb crushed me.

I shrank Pitifully.

Then … I wore a shirt and my

Brother's trousers, cut my hair short and ignored

My womanliness. Dress in sarees, be girl

Be wife, they said. Be embroiderer, be cook,

Be a quarreller with servants. Fit in. Oh,

Belong, cried the categorizers. Don't sit

On walls or peep in through our lace-draped windows.

Be Amy, or be Kamala. Or, better

Still, be Madhavikutty. It is time to

Choose a name, a role. Don't play pretending games.

Don't play at schizophrenia or be a

Nympho. Don't cry embarrassingly loud when

Jilted in love … I met a man, loved him. Call

Him not by any name, he is every man

Who wants. a woman, just as I am every

Woman who seeks love. In him . . . the hungry haste

Of rivers, in me . . . the oceans' tireless

Waiting. Who are you, I ask each and everyone,

The answer is, it is I. Anywhere and,

Everywhere, I see the one who calls himself I

In this world, he is tightly packed like the

Sword in its sheath. It is I who drink lonely

Drinks at twelve, midnight, in hotels of strange towns,

It is I who laugh, it is I who make love

And then, feel shame, it is I who lie dying

With a rattle in my throat. I am sinner,

I am saint. I am the beloved and the

Betrayed. I have no joys that are not yours, no

Aches which are not yours. I too call myself I.

Now the further task is we have to create our own stuff by inspire it. And in this, I picked a word 'I' and I am presenting a short poem which is titled as "Crown of Humanity". So, let's have a look for that.

Crown of Humanity

I don't wear that costly necklace,

I wear that humble heart to confess!

I don't need anklets to dance.

I wear that trustworthy thread to spread grace!

I don't yearn rings to promises wildly,

I wear that rose to keep honesty!

I don't want that toxic tiara to be guilty,

I wear that nectar crown to flip humanity!

Interpretation of the poem :

 

Here I wrote the very short poem and it is based on the idea of materialistic world and specially when it come to the women normally people make them happy by gifting the expensive ornaments. But the thought I wanted to portrayed is that one should not look at another person as female and male at very first sight. Rather the all humans are same with the values and qualities. That is, we and the society make it biased by our perspectives.

I mentioned the materialistic things by comparing the very basic values of human life. Like necklace, anklets, rings, tiara and on their replacement, I used confesses, trustworthiness, honesty and the very required quality is humanity.

THANK YOU!