Landscapes

Abstract

POETRY Two Poems Saleem Peeradina Landscapes ExhibitA The painter of landscapes invitesus to thegallery To gaze at cliffs wrapped in mist. Or waterfalls starting in tricklesrushingdown glossy Slopes intoriverbedsbanked with moss. Or a lush, tropical forestsold tous as Eden Perfect in itspromise, air sweetened, lurkingbeasts Declawed, no signs of scuffle. Even fragrantorchards and cultivated fields recede To farhorizons thatstay stillor creep away fromturmoil Outside the frame.The figureof awanderer Or recluse,modestly miniature, drifts into thescene Standing thereto tellus look , against thisgrand design, I am nothing. Backdrop isall thedrama there is To be foundhere.We buy this fiction And make out of itawindow on ourwall. ExhibitB Hiroshige* got itright. Not thathe ever disclaimed his civil servant status. Not thathe spurned theprivilege ofhis ancestral Samurai crest.Not thathe knocked at castle gates Or ever saw the inside of a thatchedhut. Not thathe followed the tracksofpalanquin-bearers Or ran in the wake ofpostal runners,or limped alongside Ponies ladenwith goods. Not thathe broke his back With paddy planters standing ankle-deep in flooded fields, Or sweated with thehorse groomers or,with calloused palms, Pulled thenets of the fish-haulers. Not thathe sang With itinerant musicians or dallied with thedancers. Not thathe Haunted thedens ofprostitutes or floated ina fogof opium. But he was everywhere and he watched. He rode Up and down thehighway. He stared long and hard At the landscape. And the landscape looked back offering November-December 2009 i29 POETRY Cobalt skies, steepmountain passes on cliffsides cut Like gems; the scentofpine and plum trees,soggy trails, And crunchygravel; theripples of streams, shallow Ferries, and white boat sails billowing likegiant lampshades. Even the wind played along bending grass and blowing offhats. The landscape stretchedout and leaned back content. The artistcomposed, recreating the sturdiness ofbodies And theslack ofmuscle; the frownofworry and theeasy laughter; The hurled syllables ofquarrels, and theslump of regret. Sometimes, hemay have slept at the innsand slurped tea At the tea stalls, sizing up Sumo wrestlers in transit.In town, He lingered on thebridges tohear bazaar gossip, Got drenched inan unexpected downpour and went home To change intoa dry, silkkimono. Outside, thewind howled, The rainbeat inslanted brushstrokes,prying loose Weeping mudslides. The inkysky invaded his dreams. The nextmorning, therehewas again, looking.He was Everywhere. He missed nothing. FieldDay The singers of songs at sowing time Are bathed in shiny foil light. They work in furrowschurned like chocolate. A choreographer conducts theirsynchronous Slow motion dance. The camera Isnot allowed close-ups yet. The singers of songs at harvest time Are a merry bunch eager , smiling, robust. The wardrobe planner has put them inbright colors For low-angle shots against a speckled sky. The men's hair isoiled and groomed By amakeup artist; the women's done ina salon. The singers of songs at threshingtime Have changed costumes toperformnew tasks Clearing mountains of grain, luggingheavy jutebags As ifthey were pillows. Their limbsnever ache, Their soles don't crack.Of course theydo not sweat. Everybody cheers thesingers of songs. Saleem Peeradina, Associate Professor of English at SienaHeights University in Adrian, Michigan, is the author ofFirst Offence (1980),GroupPortrait (1992),andMeditationson Desire (2003).He edited Contemporary Indian Poetry inEnglish(1972),one of the earliest and most widely used texts incourses on South Asian literature. The Ocean in My Yard, Peeradina's prose memoir of growing up inBombay, was published byPenguin Books in 2005. His poetry is represented in major anthologies of Indian, South Asian, and Asian American writing. *AndoHiroshige (1795 1858), a Japanese artist, is best known for Fifty-three Stages of the Tokaido, a series of color woodblock prints first exhibitedin 1832. Against a backdrop of natural and constructed landscapes, Hiroshige records thesights and activities on the pilgrim route between Edo and Kyoto. Previous page: Hiroshige's "One Hundred Famous Viewsof Edo" (#62). This page: "Reed inthe Snow and Wild Duck." 301World Literature Today ...