Poem- An Introduction by Kamala Das
TEXT OF POEMS I don't know politics but I know the names Of those in power, and can repeat them like Days of weeks or names of months, beginning with Nehru. I am Indian, very brown, born in Malabar, I speak three languages, write in Two, dreams in one. Do not write in English, they said, English is Not your mother tongue. Why not leave me alone critics, friends, visiting cousins, every one of you? Why not let me speak in any language I like? The language I speak becomes mine its distortions its queerness All mine, mine alone. It is half English, half Indian, funny perhaps, but it is honest It is as human as I am human, do not you see it voices my joys, my longings, my hopes and it Is useful to be as cawing as to crow or roaring to the lions. It is human a speech, the speech of mind that is here and not there, A mind that sees and hears and is aware not the deaf-blind speech Of trees in storm or of monsoon clouds or of rain or the Incoherent mutterings of blessing funeral pyre. I wa...