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I have come to a remote edge of tiredness, poems of Shivshankar Menon


poems of shivshankar menon

Southern Evening


Southern evening, with the sea wind

Swaying coconut palms gently

Against the chameleon sunset sky


And against a twilight hush and slow

Thickening of light the evening prayer

From the mosque near the sea's edge


Calls through the gathering gloom in an

Ancient tongue from across the waters

Raising spectres of trading vessels from


The West arriving row upon row down

Generations ephemeral as the waves,

Arriving, in a sudden quickening of hope


In sight of this golden southern shore and

The dense green throbbing life beyond .



Resthouse


The resthouse on the hillside

Is a white crescent carved into

Dark waves of greenery


The sunset flashing golden from

Its window panes is a lighthouse

To those who like such things


But I, who like mountains only

At a distance or in paintings, am

Content to see its whiteness fade


As night descends; I am glad to speed

Away on two wheels or four as hill

And resthouse merge into a black mass


Sinking , shrinking inexorably into

The byways of an ever-receding past.



Convalescence


I have come to a remote edge

Of tiredness, where the ship

No longer comes in to port but


Remains motionless outside the

Harbour, its lights dimly watchful,

Mistrustful. And I have come


To a sharper understanding of

Things, which I know will depart

In the slow dawning of wellness


And then I shall no longer see things

As I see them now, in stark outline

And deep shades, and I shall catch


Vainly at these as they fade

Into the stale normality of day

 

Shivshankar Menon, having served as a history teacher at St. Stephen's College in Delhi from 1987 to 2014, now resides in his hometown of Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. Presently, his focus is devoted to the exploration of various languages, including Russian, Sanskrit, Malayalam, and Greek.


poems of shivshankar menon

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