Wednesday Feature – The Poetry of Sarah Das Gupta

Bio

Bio Sarah Das Gupta is a teacher from Cambridge, UK who has also lived and taught in India and Tanzania. Her work has ben published in over 100 journals/ magazines in numerous countries, including: US, UK, Canada, Australia, India, Germany, Romania and Croatia.

Waltzing with Chopin in Snow

Snow falls softly.
Outside the road is blocked,
a white wilderness of silence
spreads through the city’s heart.
The front door guarded by icicles,
frozen fringe of winter daggers.

Inside a fire
flickers sleepily.
Red embers suddenly
awake and die.

Chopin waltzes
fill the room,
seeping through snowy walls
from far off, white fields
of memory.
We are dancing
in that lost world
of gilded ballrooms,
silk and chiffon trailing,
over the gleaming floor.
Chandeliers iridescent
in the candlelight
reflecting the dancers
in the mirrored walls.

Troikas waiting,
horses stamping, steaming.
Ready for the clear sound
of harness bells.

We drift on, cocooned
in the warmth
of the sitting room.
Avoiding the astonished
looks of the shabby chairs.
Piano notes circle with us.
Outside is only snow.

Up in the Clouds

Christmas Eve,
a scatter of snow.
Cold, very cold
as only the mountains
can be.

Darjeeling, midnight,
bells ringing,
ghosts of the Raj
dream in cold tombs
of lost Indian summers.

Kanchenjunga,
the sacred mountain
Her five peaks
the five treasures
of snow.

Salt, gold, jewels,
sacred scroll,
impenetrable armour,
guarded by
demons of old.

Thank you for reading and please stay with us. We will soon announce the publication date of Virginia Witch’s fabulous book Greenlandos.