Here is a sonnet of mine (guilty!) It first appeared in the Reasons For Belonging: Fourteen Contemporary Indian Poets anthology (Viking Penguin, 2002; ed. Ranjit Hoskote). I provide this info because all the zest poems are archived, score high on google searches, and people should be careful with credits when they post. I have recently revised and tightenened this, especially the last line.
As is the tradition on the list, I won't say how long ago I first wrote it, but it was many many years ago. I was in my first year of undergrad in a very cold town in upstate New York-- Potsdam. I was taking my first poetry class with Joe Duemer. There were some evangelical Christians in the town, prowling for converts. I went to church to see what it would be like. Vivek. IN CHURCH (for Joseph Duemer) In a few minutes this empty classroom will take the form of a house of worship. I am to play the stranger drawn from below an imagined equator into the hot flush of a host’s handshake. Who are these people I assume to be the families of farmers from their clipped-syllable speech? They sit in rows of unfolded metal chairs and sing. I suppose they’ve turned to that crossing spoken by their pastor and I suppose they want me there with them. I, instead, am trying to make this poem work its own, different—something. The room, soaked in luxurious, borrowed light. I follow it to the window, in which a single oak tree shows through the fresh snow. -VN -- You are encouraged to post poetry, respond critically to the poems circulated and participate in discussions. To post, email your message to [email protected] OR post online at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTPoets/post/ Tell friends to subscribe to ZESTPoets by sending a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED], OR, if they have a Yahoo! ID, by visiting http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTPoets/join/ ---theZESTcommunity-------------- [1] ZESTCurrent: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCurrent/ [2] ZESTEconomics: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTEconomics/ [3] ZESTGlobal: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTGlobal/ [4] ZESTMedia: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTMedia/ [5] ZESTPoets: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTPoets/ [6] ZESTCaste: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTCaste/ [7] ZESTAlternative: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTAlternative/ [8] TalkZEST: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TalkZEST/ --- Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZESTPoets/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
