WOMEN IN SHROUDS
Widows in a sacred town silently stitch shrouds, their shattered dreams consumed…
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From ULR
Issue 9 – Violence
WOMEN OF THE LAND WHERE PAIN BLOOMS LIKE POPPY
Women, in war-torn lands, discover silent strength, rooting in darkness for new profound resilient possibilities
June 15, 2023
Dedicated to the sisters in war ravaged countries
At the end of the day
When the words died out in sentences
and men hang on clotheslines
like starched sheets
and the barbaric chaos of war-odour
perpetually engulfs and numbs them
and when their blue-emerald eyes
become a mere myth
Then the women of those lands
where pain blooms like poppies
realise that there is no hope
that the dust over ancestors’ graves
will ever settle down
there will be no fragrant-spring morning
to herald the future
Instead a cryptic paroxysm
will invade their homes and hearts
a freeze-frame of time
spreads over the world‘s dark mutability
forcing those sisterly silhouettes
to sink into darkness
In penetrating intimacy of darkness
these women will strike roots silently
and turn themselves
into a matrix
with profound possibilities
📖
PART OF A COLLECTIONWOMEN OF THE LAND WHERE PAIN BLOOMS LIKE POPPY and 1 other poem
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Sarita Jenamani
Sarita Jenamani is an India-born Austria-based poet, essayist, literary translator, anthologist, editor of a bilingual magazine for migrant literature – Words & Worlds – a human rights activist, a feminist and general secretary of PEN International’s Austrian chapter. Her poetry that has so far been published in three collections. English is the chief medium of her creative process. The other two languages she writes in are; Odia, the state language of the place of her origin Odisha and German, the language of her country of residence, Austria. She employs these languages for the translation. Jenamani has translated Rilke, Rose Ausländer, both leading Austrian poets, from German in Odia and Hindi respectively. She has edited an anthology of contemporary Austrian poetry from German into Odia. She has received many literary fellowships in Germany and in Austria including those of the prestigious organisations of ‘Heinrich Boll Foundation and ‘Kunstlerdorf Schoppingen’.