Meena alexanders poetry is marked by diasporic sensibility which finds highly emotion, charge expression in sensual, lyrical and metaphoric language. Meena alexander was born in allahabad, india, in 1951. She is the south asian american diasporic writer, wife of. It seems to me that the lyric poem is a place of extreme silence, which is protected from the world. Meena alexander poems poems of meena alexander poem. Like many of meena alexanders poems, the storm is largely about. Meena alexander is always in an experiment on the issues of home and identity in her creative oeuvre. Universe a united nations of poetry meena alexander. Meena alexander, indian poet and teacher whose works reflect her multicultural life in india, sudan, and the united states. An expanded version of atmospheric embroidery is forthcoming from triquarterly books northwestern university press in spring 2018. Born in allahabad, india, and raised in india and sudan, alexander lives and works in new york city, where she is distinguished professor of english at hunter college and at the cuny graduate center in the phd program in english.
Each knowshe must bewrongabout this, buthe cant feelhow. It seems to me that the lyric poem is a place of extreme silence, which is. Described as undoubtedly one of the finest poets of contemporary times by the statesman india, she was the author of numerous collections of poetry, including atmospheric embroidery 2018, birthplace with buried stones 20, and. Phenomenal woman, still i rise, the road not taken, if you forget me, dreams.
At the age of fifteen, she officially changed her name to meena. Pdf meena alexander and american identity stephanie han. It is an interesting poem with two very powerful metaphors. She received a bachelors degree in french and english from khartoum university and a doctorate degree in english from nottingham university in england. In the 1990s, i discovered the poetry of meena alexander through her groundbreaking book, the shock of arrival. While her poetry might be her bestknown work, her works span a variety of literary genres. Meena alexander and zarina hashmi the poem house of breath was composed as a verbal response to a series of works on paper by the artist zarina hashmi. Meena alexanders house of a thousand doors september 22, 2014 rukhaya 0 comments meena alexander explores in a house of a thousand doors the effects of colonization and exploitation and what lies between the surface of lives. Two poems, by meena alexander world literature today.
Meena alexander born 1951 is an internationally acclaimed poet, scholar, and writer. In her writings the issues of family and various relations are mixed together. Meena alexander, women studies, south asian american poetry, fault lines, third space, ethnic minority. But at the same time, almost by virtue of that disconnect, it becomes a very intense location to reflect on the world. Meena alexander 17 february 1951 21 november 2018 was an indian poet, scholar, and. Her first book, a single lengthy poem, entitled the birds bright wing, was published in 1976 in calcutta. Poems and prose pieces is a collection of fiftynine poems and prose pieces. Diasporic experience in the poetry of meena alexander. Really dreams empower men to reach their targets in life. Indian love poems everymans library pocket poets by. It has also to do with the kind of shelter that poets can. Her poetry emerges out of the consciousness of hanging between two worlds, between memory and present experience. She calls the first poem house of a thousand doors as a dream poem and. Influence of society in meena kandasamys social and poetic identity reflected in her poetry rohini v.
Meena alexanders illiterate heart and quickly changing. When she was eighteen she went to study in england. Her volume of poems atmospheric embroidery triquarterly booksnorthwestern u press and the anthology she edited name me a word. Ramanujans smallscale reflections on a large house that is at once emblematic of the indian culture. The 1990s saw a tremendous growth in the fields of postcolonial literature and theory, as well as in the field of us ethnic studies, which includes asian american and more specifically south asian american studies.
Sometimes writing can work toward a reparation, making a sheltering space for the mind. Nov 21, 2018 meena alexander was an internationally acclaimed poet, scholar, and writer. Meena alexanders eighth book of poetry atmospheric embroidery has just been published in india new delhi, hachette india, 2015. Described as undoubtedly one of the finest poets of contemporary times by the statesman india, she was the author of numerous collections of poetry. Meena alexander was born in allahabad, india, raised in india and sudan. Influence of society in meena kandasamys social and. Meena alexander has two new books forthcoming in 2018. Pathak this paper unfolds the reflection of social structurethe on the works of meena kandasamy b. Place and memory in meena alexanders memoir and poems. Born in allahabad, india, and raised in india and sudan, alexander lived and.
The journey of a homebound pilgrim aditi jana vidyasagar university, west bengal, india abstract meena alexander is an emerging indianenglish poet. She is distinguished professor of english at hunter college and the graduate center cuny. Her work ranged from poetry collections to memoirs to academic books. We asked authors, booksellers, publishers, editors, and others to share the places they go to connect with writers of the past, to the bars and cafes where todays authors give readings, and to those sites that are most inspiring for writing. As the light bares her more and more, it reveals her as naked as truth itself as contrasted with a made up world with a superficial coating. We will also read selected prose by walcott and his. By then she was and incorporeal dream lost in the night. The act of writing, it seems to me, makes up a shelter, allows space to what would otherwise be hidden, crossed out, mutilated. There are love letters, intellectual musings and descriptions of passionate intimate moments. Sep 18, 2017 poem hunter all poems of by meena alexander poems. Alexanders poems with their intense lyricism convey the fragmented.
Meena alexander indian poet and teacher britannica. Some critics, however, may legitimately insist upon her status as an indian, not as an american of indian descent. Meena alexanders poetry reflects her multicultural heritage and the tension it creates. Indian love poems everymans library pocket poets by meena. Home archives reading room search editorial info books subscribe west links winter 1998, volume 15. Dream my secrets fall from my mouth, braced neat as pearls. Alexander expands the definition and behaviors understood as american. Meena alexander and american identity contemporary women. Meena alexander was born in allahabad, india, on february 17, 1951. A few poems are erotic without being overly offensive. She was raised in both india and the sudan in north africa. More about this poem cadenza by meena alexander about this poet born in allahabad, india, poet meena alexander was raised in kerala and sudan. Most of her works are centered on feminism and the anticaste caste annihilation movement of the contemporary indian milieu.
The reference to grandmother suggests the lost old world charm that is now captured only in dreams. When you undress, i sit seeing the colours of the clothes you slip over your head. I watch you darkly growing towards me, the last glinting of arms and the cupped tense belly. Diasporic experience in the poetry of meena alexander international journal of history and cultural studies ijhcs page 48 a great amount of meaning is deliberately packed by the poetess into the poem. The academy of american poets is the largest membershipbased nonprofit organization fostering an appreciation for contemporary poetry and supporting american poets. This particular house has a thousand doors referring to its vibrancy and its openness to guests, foreign ideas and.
Meena alexander is one of the finest indian poets writing today, declares keki n. Born in allahabad, india, poet meena alexander was raised in kerala and sudan. A postcolonial journey in the poems of meena alexander. Meena alexanders poetry is a complex interweaving of the indian and immigrant. To meena alexander, the question of home is bound with a migrant memory and the way that poetry permits a dwelling at the edge of the world poem out of place 1. The themes of partition, exile and migration are powerful in. Indian love poems is a very unique anthology filled with sensuous, dreamy and romantic wonders.
Her poetry collections include atmospheric embroidery triquarterly books, 2018. Meena alexander, described as undoubtedly one of the finest poets of contemporary. Although christened mary elizabeth, she has been called meena since birth. In the writings of meena alexander these experiences are prominent. Critical essays on meena alexander, seeks to address. Meena alexander 19512018 was a poet with an indian.
Meena alexander poems poems of meena alexander poem hunter. She has drawn grandmother figure from her memory and dream. I have included lines from his letter and set them in italics in my poem. Pdf the theme of multiple dislocation and immigration as. At the time, i was constantly searching for alternative voices and experiences that echoed my own hyphenated identity as a britishborn indian american, a lived experience in which the mighty mississippi, the regal. Meena alexanders literary career began early, at the tender age of ten, when she began writing poetry. Diasporic sensibility in the poetry of meena alexander and. Poetry of september 11 is a guide to poetry written in the immediate aftermath of the september 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. In particular i was inspired by her portfolio of prints home is a foreign place. The spirits have dispersed, the woodsfaded to grey from midnight blueleaving a powdery residue,night music fainter, frivolous godswithdrawing, cries of yin and yang,discords of the bionic young. She earned a ba at khartoum university and a phd at nottingham university. Dream poem explore the connection between two kinds of dreams, sleeping dreams and dreams we have while awake. She feels that multiple speeches surround her making her dream of. The fishand the fisherman,the pilot,the princess,the fireman andthe ones on fire.
Diasporic sensibility in the poetry of meena alexander and sujata bhatt when the time came for her to learn all the knowledge from her past lives returned to her, as wild geese in autumn to the ganga river. Meena alexander is a distinguished poet and one of the finest thinkers of asian american aesthetics. Her poetry publications include stone roots l980, house of a thousand doors l988 and two long poems. At five years of age, alexander and her family moved to the sudan, where she attended.
Described as undoubtedly one of the finest poets of contemporary times by the statesman india, she was the author of numerous collections of. She now lives in new york city, where she is a distinguished professor of english at hunter college and the graduate center at the city university of new york. The theme of multiple dislocation and immigration as treated in diaspora literatureanalyzing the cases of select south asianamerican diaspora writers. To make a lyric poem, i have to enter into a dream state. The storm, a poem in five parts l989 and nightscene, the garden l992. The poet from india who lived and wrote with sensitivity for the world. There are animals such as cows, buffaloes, pigs, frogs, lions, leopards, bullocks, monkeys, goats, dogs, elephants, tigers. Meena alexander was an internationally acclaimed poet, scholar, and writer.
Night after night as i worked on this elegy, the wind and winter chill commingled with the memory of rocks and stones and trees in a city i loved, and i was consumed by the tumultuous hope and the very real despair of a young man i had never met. Daruwalla on the back of alexanders river and bridge 1996. After the terrible events of september 11, i had been working on a prose book, which i put aside, because i needed the sharp fragility of the lyric. The first poem when in the dark my mind brightened opens with a stark confession that sets the tone for the collection that will follow. As a prominent diasporic writer, meena alexander tries to break the social, cultural and linguistic barriers which have so long been the sources of. Indian love poems is a unique gathering of poems from across more than two and a half millennia that attempts to catalog the disordered ecstasies of love, ranging from the kama sutra and earlier works up to presentday india and the poets of the indian diaspora. She would spend most of her life living and teaching in new york city, but her writing speaks to a sense of displacement, of distances crossed over oceans and desert sands, in a language that is sparse, yet fierce in. Nov 21, 2018 meena alexander, indian poet and teacher whose works reflect her multicultural life in india, sudan, and the united states. Meena alexander was born to a syrian christian family in the indian city of allahabad in 1951, and raised in india and in sudan. Meena alexander is an eminent poet and one of the finest thinkers of asian american aesthetics. Ilavenil meena kandasamy born 1984 is an indian poet, fiction writer, translator and activist who is based in chennai, tamil nadu, india. Meena alexanders illiterate heart and quickly changing river. Meena kandasamy their daughters paracetamol legends i know for rising fevers, as painrelievers of my peoplefathers fathers mothers mother, dark lush hair caressing her ankles sometimes, sweeping earth, deephoney skin, amber eyesnot beauty alone they sayshe married a man who murdered thirteen men and one.
The acute sense of loss and nostalgia is reflected in the creative output of alexander. Her works include the pen award winning book of poems illiterate heart, and birthplace with buried stones published by triquarterly books northwestern university press. We honor meena alexanders memory by including her poem crossroad, which she read at matwaala 2017, held at the asian american writers workshop in new york city, and atmospheric embroidery, the title poem from her latest book. Meena alexander 17 february 1951 21 november 2018 was an indian poet, scholar, and writer. Like all other poets, meena alexanders poems also deal with the themes. Meena alexander is a notable poet, critic and novelist. To make a lyric poem you have to enter into a dream state.
Described as undoubtedly one of the finest poets of contemporary times by the statesman india, she was the author. Born in allahabad, india, and raised in india and sudan, alexander lived and worked in new york city, where she was distinguished professor of english at hunter college and at the cuny graduate center in the phd program in english. We will approach the question of literary selffashioning by thinking through questions of place and dislocation, body. Similarly, alexander employs the strategy of dream as another. Meena alexander was born to a syrian christian family in the indian city of allahabad in 1951. The imagery of water bird is used for memories and dreams.
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