Description
Book SynopsisThe poems of Arundhathi Subramaniam's Love Without a Story celebrate an expanding kinship: of passion and friendship, mythic quest and modern-day longing, in a world animated by dialogue and dissent, delirium and silence. Circling themes of intimacy and time, they return to the urgency of conversation: that fragile bridge across the frozen attitudes that divide our world. But at the heart of the collection is a deeper preoccupation, with those blurry places where humans might walk with gods, where the body might touch the beyond, where the enchanted might intersect effortlessly with the everyday. Where one stumbles upon what the poet simply calls ‘love without a story’. Arundhathi Subramaniam's previous book from Bloodaxe, When God Is a Traveller, was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize. Love Without a Story is her fourth collection of poetry. Her earlier work is available in Where I Live: New & Selected Poems.
Trade ReviewBy turns laconic and passionate, she asks questions about morality and integrity that many poets simply refuse to take on. Yet she is also an extraordinary love poet… A remarkable book from a remarkable poet. -- John Burnside * Poetry Review [on Where I Live] *
Arundhathi Subramaniam has already won acclaim as a poet of integrity… There is a beautiful uncertainty about her poems… intimately physical, intense enough to scald and char, along with a will to withdraw, to renounce… unhibitedly sensual while still yearning for transcendence. This ambivalence, combined with a sense of wonder, of unexpectedness, of moods as well as words, is what marks her apart. -- K. Satchidanandan * Frontline [on When God Is a Traveller]. *
A sense of wonder and striking contrasts pervade the Indian poet’s fourth collection. The sacred meets the everyday, cerebral wordplay delivers full-blooded emotion, and ancient Hindu myths run alongside contemporary urban life. Breathtaking in scope, taking in religious faith, friendships, love affairs and existential themes. Often the work questions poetry itself – but it is always rooted in the physical and the tangible, with fresh visual imagery that really packs a punch. Bold and thought-provoking. -- Juanita Coulson * The Lady (Christmas Books 2015) [on When God Is a Traveller] *
Table of Contents7 I Grew Up in an Age of Poets 9 Deleting the Picture 12 A Theory of Wandering 14 And Where It Might End 16 Mitti 19 Finding Dad 21 The Strange Thing About Love 22 La Verna 25 A First Monsoon Again 28 How to Read Indian Myth 30 Remembering 32 Bring on the Screen Savers 34 The Fine Art of Ageing 47 Missing Friends 49 Parents 50 Parents II 51 When Landscape Becomes Woman 53 This Could Be Enough 55 Tongue 57 Let Me Be Adjective 59 Let There Be Grid 61 The Need for Nests 63 Ninda-stuti 65 Song for Catabolic Women 68 The End of the World 69 Shorthand 70 The Monk 72 The Lover 74 The Bus to Ajmer 77 In Short 78 The Problem with Windows 79 Been There 80 Backbencher 81 If It Must Be Now 82 ‘Dying is hard work’ 83 Goddess 86 Goddess II 87 Goddess III 88 Memo 89 Memo II 90 In Praise of Conversations 93 Afterword 96 Acknowledgements
