Sunday 20 August 2017

Compelled




Mountains of Mauritius by Mira Boolell Khushiram





Mountains spike the horizon, and I’m still
compelled by those gradients, though I’ve climbed
sudden roadside slopes, sprawling limbs of hills,
the mist enclosed mounds of light and time,
the steep caves in which rivers turn and swill,
churn and chuckle, moult off skins, ice and rime,
and plunge through tight fists of boulders, downhill.
The nests of all change and all paradigms.


Yet they are too far, distance flattens steep
to gentle, and smooths the mist to a thread
of smoke from a dung fired mud stove, that creeps
serpentine into hill roads. And into my head.
Should I turn away? because the seabed’s
less daunting than a scree-sharpened, rougher sweep? 





This is part of a series of on-going collaborations between me and architect-artist Mira. Read more about her and how it all happened here. Thank you Mira, for gracing my walls here with your lovely colours. 








16 comments:

  1. I always enjoy your collaborations and marvel at the way your words add richness and spice to the image, and at the way Mira's work spurs you on to climb those mountains.

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    1. Thank you, EC. Much appreciate your support, and I know I speak for both Mira and myself.

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  2. Wonderful partnership Mira's painting is alive. It goes further through your words.

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    1. Thank you! That's exactly what I feel about her art too - really speaks to me!

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  3. Mira's artwork and your words are indeed wonderful.
    Well done.

    Yvonne.

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  4. Hi Nila - I love Mira's art works - they are beautiful ... while your verses bring the piece to life, as well as the thought that mountains have so many facets to them ... and were at one stage a seabed pushed up ... cheers Hilary

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    1. Aren't they? I love her colourwork! Thanks for being here from both of us.

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  5. Super. Another wonderful collaboration.
    As a fellow architect I appreciate Mira's muted colours. As a fellow worker in words I am constantly amazed by Nilanjana's skill and dexterity with them....

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    1. Thanks so much Cyrus! I particularly liked the way the vividness of colours have been employed to portray perspective. So much depth!

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  6. Lovely collaboration. I wanted to climb into the mists.

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    1. Me too! I kind of climb into her work every time I see them...

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  7. Another great collaboration. I love your final point.

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    1. Thanks Well, the seabed often looks easier that it is...

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  8. A beautiful painting and the words were lovely too, sparking off all kinds of images. Great collaboration!

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