A couple weeks back I did some collaborative art here – used
a friend’s artwork as prompts to my poetry, and the results were amazingly pleasant
for both sides. Read more about that
effort here. So today I am back with some more – two of Mira’s delicate
watercolours of Mauritian seascapes.
The first is of Blue Bay – a well-known
picnic spot and a popular beach destination.
And the other is of a mountain called Le Morne. Legend has it that slaves under the French colonial rule escaped here (hence the French appellation) - runaways, maroons sheltered in its caves, and hid from their masters. Some also dived from the cliffs high above into the sea when they learnt they had been located, and killed themselves to avoid capture. This mountain has been chosen by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site because of these tragedies. This particular location is also mentioned in Amitav Ghosh's Ibis trilogy as the site of Deeti's cave shrine, which is where I first came across it.
Both of these watercolours took me back in time and place, the Blue Bay
to the Blue Beach in the North Coast of Egypt, and the mountain to a much
smaller, much less important inselberg parked on the horizons of my school
route in Northern Nigeria many years ago. Everything reminds me of something else, deja vu overload. Or maybe I'm just getting old :) Anyways, here they are - Mira's fingers with the paintbrush, and mine at the keypad -
 |
| The Blue Bay, Mauritius by Mira Boolell Khushiram |
Wherever
I go I can see your face -
in
mountains, in cloud forms, in cloudless skies,
in
the colours of a sailboat, in the shape
of
a triangular sail - the rise
and
fall of its movements mirrors my own.
I
can still hear your voice in the winds,
suede-soft against the harshness of stone,
calling
down years into the labyrinths
of
time and memories and joyful verse.
I
can still feel your hand right next to mine
a
slight tremor, a pulse saying more than words,
your
smile transformed into this new shoreline
as
if I’d never left, as if you and me
were
together still, sailing that same jade sea.
 |
| Le Morne by Mira Boolell Khushiram |
Everything
calls to me, as though it’s a sign
to
turn and face the way I came again -
a
certain mountain brings back a lost terrain
an
inselberg that wore the same outline
in
thick sunlight poured on the horizon
beyond
the vanishing point, where the road
hid
behind distant trees, silken winds rode
acacias,
deep grass, Fulani herdsmen.
Too
many miles have lapsed, too many autumns
fallen
in heaps of leaves. And when I look
closely
it’s just something else I mistook -
different
mountains, different outcomes.
The
track itself turns to mud as I glance
behind,
there’s no option but to advance.
I have loved working with Mira's art, so proud to have her paintings lift up my 'walls' to an altogether different level here! Thank you, Mira! Hope the readers will enjoy the colours and words as much as we both have.
Since I'm travelling, my posts through July and August are scheduled, but I will check in whenever I can and respond. Meanwhile, have the happiest summer/season!
