Dance Triptych

Kathak

for Aditi Mangaldas

Deep within the eyes of a dancer,

irises and poems bloom.

On her cupped curled

kohl-lined eyelids, similes smile.

On each eyelash, metaphors arch,

waiting to flutter.

On her bosom’s electric-silk fabric,

secret lyrics are bloused.

Her limb’s slender extension-tips

decant arias — thumris sing, soar.

Her balletic grace, liquid —

she dances on water, always afloat.

Even Khusro and Kabir —

stunned, tongue-tied — searchingly

compete to compose couplets

for this dancer’s next movement.

Pupils wide-eyed,

she cajoles, seeking her lover —

hidden in the dancer’s heart,

the beloved quietly resides.

Balance

for Akram Khan

You sculpt air, creating

shapes in black — unstitching

coal-dark diorama drapes.

Your outstretched limbs

and fingers

trace lines and curves —

deft as a seasoned seamstress,

in translucent slow-motion —

fragile and delicate

like season’s first snowflakes.

A melange of poise,

posture and perfect pitch —

the arched brown-glaze

of your pate and skin,

the deep gaze

of your kohl-lined eyes

sculpt a subtle abhinaya.

Rest is all flourish, drama.

New idiom, grammar —

clipped accent and the lyric

assonance of Bangla DESH,

merge beautifully.

Fluid, organic language —

a unique signature,

your own dance-bhasha

coalesce quietly.

Desire, ecstasy, transcendence —

pupil, iris, retina — focussing

balance — intersecting

perfectly, on solar-plexus axis.

Apparition

for Mavin Khoo

An apparition

in perfect cruciform —

paced in measured

slow-motion — Shaolin

monk retraces

Buddha’s Indian soul.

Little Siddhartha

draped in white

on white — others

robed in colour-solids —

red, blue, green,

yellow, beige, orange —

make beautiful

large claw-like arcs,

arching their bodies —

balletic, frenzied —

freeze-frame

choreographed motion.

In a moment of

madness, in a moment

of frenzy, there is

stillness, peace, calm.

The spotlights

flare out, casting

celestial halos

on ordinary things.

Fusion of everyday

with the unusual

and spiritual

making you glow —

an aura captured

permanently

as light’s trickery —

dancer’s lissome grace.

Sudeep Sen is an award-winning poet, editor and translator of over 25 books including, most recently, Fractals: New and Selected Poems I

Translations 1980-2015 (Gallerie) and EroText (Vintage: Penguin Random House)

COMMENT NOW