Art: Loner by Fabrice Poussin
I Have No Mind
I have no mind-country to be in
I have no rescue dog and evening reminiscences
I have no eyes that tell me about times spent whiling away
I have, but only docile cages in pursuit of fathers and sons
I belong nowhere and everywhere
Yet, my heart tells me
That my mind deserves a country
Any country would do
As long as it does not shoot its inhabitants
For not staying on the lane
A lighted world, out of sight.
I’d like to grow vegetables on rooftops
If I had a house in my mind
If my mind had a country
And my country had a mind
If at all, there were flowers and fruits
I’d like to grow them too.
I’d like to have a large pool
Of incessant words
Under the dark back of time.
Friends of my mind, tell me to shed my modesty
Ask for things. Ask for grander things. Impossible things.
Like butterflies of dreams
Or an arresting waterfall
Or like my friend Eurycleia,
Have a sky of sapphires.
I do not want all of that, I protest, meekly.
All I want is to live in a mind-country
Where desires can bloom over acacias
And worldliness on hills
And deafening nothingness on the
Back of the presently past.
All I want is to belong to my mind-country
Freely and openly
The wayfarer, sighs.
Sings his songs and leaves.
Minds have no countries, son.
It is almost as if, you do not have a mind.
About the author:
Sreyash Sarkar, is a poet, a qualified painter, a practising Hindustani Classical musician and an aspiring researcher in Microelectronics and Nanotechnology. Educated in Kolkata, Bangalore, and Paris, he has been a student correspondent at The Statesman, Kolkata from his school, South Point. In 2012, in an international poetry competition organized in the memoir of Yeats, his poem was shortlisted among 40 other poets from all over the world. Having been nominated and won a plethora of literary and art prizes, his interview was published in the “The Arty Legume”, where he was asked to speak on cubism, existentialism in art and intrusion in a painting. He has been extensively featured in “Five Poetry Magazine”, “Muses”, “El Portal”, “Tagore for us”, “The Country Cake-Stall”, “The Orange Orchard” etc. His interviews on his subjective views of art have appeared in Little Chambers Press, JuxtapozLive, Artesthetica Magazine, The Gooseberry Bushes, Swanspace magazine, among others. He is the youngest ‘polymath’ to be featured in Education-World Magazine for his outstanding achievements. His musical compositions have been part of cinematic scores and have been orchestrated widely. In 2016, the famed pianist Valentina Igoshina offered to work with him after having listened to his ‘Sea-shore of Time’ and he has also been closely working with famed world musician, Jean Philippe Rykiel. He is currently, working with several musicians to bring out his album, ‘Mois’ which features 12 compositions based on each month. Besides, being a freelance writer and an associate editor for several magazines, he is the editor-in-chief of Kalomer Kalomishak, a bilingual magazine, which he founded in 2013. He currently divides his time between Kolkata and Paris, where he is currently pursuing his doctoral studies. He can be reached at sreysarkar.weebly.com.
In the artist’s words:
Fabrice Poussin teaches French and English at Shorter University. Author of novels and poetry, his work has appeared in Kestrel, Symposium, The Chimes, and many other magazines. His photography has been published in The Front Porch Review, the San Pedro River Review as well as other publications.