Suma Subramaniam

How God would do it if he had money

The secret affinity between gambling and the desert: the intensity of gambling reinforced by the presence of the desert all around the town. The air-conditioned freshness of the gaming rooms, as against the radiant heat outside. The challenge of all the artificial lights to the violence of the sun's rays. Night of gambling sunlit on all sides; the glittering darkness of these rooms in the middle of the desert. Gambling itself is a desert form, inhuman, uncultured, initiatory, a challenge to the natural economy of value, a crazed activity on the fringes of exchange. But it too has a strict limit and stops abruptly; its boundaries are exact, its passion knows no confusion. Neither the desert nor gambling are open areas; their spaces are finite and concentric, increasing in intensity toward the interior, toward a central point, be it the spirit of gambling or the heart of the desert - a privileged, immemorial space, where things lose their shadow, where money loses its value, and where the extreme rarity of traces of what signals to us there leads men to seek the instantaneity of wealth. ~Jean Baudrillard

Iraqi poet.
Work : Arabic poetry dominated by ambiguity and complex imagery

The Inheritance

Between the earth and the sky
I draw a map for a newcomer.
Before I die
I give him his inheritance :
the glow of love
a ladder
and a living room full of friends.

While the perennial postcard fest is on the run, Im so glad and grateful to Denise Calvetti Michaels for having me read with her at Soul Food Books on 15th October. That was the fourth time I was featured, after having read at Whidbey Island, Auburn Good Old Days and Tacoma Distinguished Poets Series.

My interview with Mani Rao has been published in the Winter issue of Word, the newsletter of Washington Poets Association and here is the link :
http://www.washingtonpoets.org/2007_winter_newsletter.pdf


There are newer accomplishments coming my way this year and I will let you know about it soon.
In the meanwhile, I am learning the craft of fiction at the University of Washington and believe me, my instructor Pam is so good at it. I really adore her style of delivery and simple ways of explaining complex subjects about the craft. It has all gotten into my writing these days and Im still improving :-). I can see how much of difference it has made to my scenes. How many rewrites it takes to transform a crappy scene to something memorable....if your guess is many, I am with you. Kudos to all the great poets and writers of our time.

Resolution for this year : I got to write atleast one hour everyday....this time I promise.

In the month of August, I took part in the Postcard Poetry Fest that was organized by two of my very good friends and poets, Paul Nelson and Lana Hechtman Ayers.

It was a very interesting project, where I was on a mailing list of 31 poets from different parts of the world. The exercise was to write a poem based on the theme "POETRY OF PLACE" , relate it to the picture on the postcard and the postcard I received from someone else on the mailing list. Then, I had to write the poem on the postcard and send it to the next person on my mailing list.

It was an amazing experience to receive and send postcard poems to someone in the mailing list. I probably knew a handful of people while I didnt know many others, but we all connected through the voice of poetry. It felt very good to receive postcard poems at a time when the mailbox is most of the time filled with junk mail or bills.

Yesterday i.e., on 22nd September 2007, Saturday there was a party arranged for the postcard poetry fest poets in Cafe Vega, Seattle, WA.
It was a wonderful evening where poets met poets and shared postcard poems and their experiences about the August postcard poetry fest. The party was organized by Paul and Lana.
Denise Calvetti Michaels, a beautiful poet, who had a mesmerizing voice spoke about my poem and quoted that it was her favorite of the lot she'd received. She truly made my day!

It was interesting to see the different themes that were drawn out of the postcards and how the poems connected.


Now, there is a perennial postcard poetry project that Lana and Paul have designed, in which there is a longer list (almost 200 now) of people from different parts of the world participating in the Postcard Poetry fest.
I have indeed joined the list again....and even Srinath! (my husband...he was motivated at the party to write some lines of poetry too!)

It's going to be great and what a way to reach out to the common man. Let our thoughts and opinions fly across oceans, not caring about winds and touch poets from different parts of the world with the message of peace and love.

I wish Lana and Paul all the very best with the project and I hope to participate in it for a long time.