Poems of E V Ramakrishnan
Travellers on Foot
When
distance is measured on foot
stars appear closer .
The shadow of a magical beast
close behind you .
Travellers on foot
can't stay anywhere for long
.
To Pandharpur with Palkhi
to meet Vithoba ;
to Palani with kaavadi ;
back from Kottiyoor
with flowers of bamboos ;
to Wynad
to watch the rains .
Like a check - post ,
home blocks the way .
Must walk for another life -
time
to pay back the debt
of a pair of feet ,
says the traveller on foot
Ceremony
A Samurai sword
is conceived
in love .
Nothing is left to chance :
sand from the
coastal belt of Kyushu
and Honshu ,
ore from the mountains
of Shinto God
and silver mines . The wake
at the furnace
lasts for months .
Smoke curls up
like snake trees .
The smithy is
more like a womb
than a studio ,
in the gathering dark .
The clay -
coated metal hisses at the glowing
charcoal . The
bellet of steel is heated ,
hammered ,
split and folded over
and over . The
grainy surface is
a palimpsest ,
coded and rewelded .
As the blade is
plunged , head down
into a tank of
water , it points forward
to the colour
of the moon in March
or August . The
cutting edge quickens
the pace of
light , implicates space in a flash
of vertigo .
This is the way the sun seeps into
the cellulose
wall of the leaf ,
the way algae
forms in the sea
or a piece of
canvas hallucinates
A slow- moving boat song against the
night-sky.
The blade is as plain as a grammar
Till it enters the human cycle
of hate and spectacle. Ready for
ceremony.