Subscribe: by Email | in Reader

Round and Round -- Vikram Seth

Guest poem submitted by Abhijit Padte:
(Poem #460) Round and Round
After a long and wretched flight
That stretched from daylight into night,
Where babies wept and tempers shattered
And the plane lurched and whiskey splattered
Over my plastic food, I came
To claim my bags from Baggage Claim

Around, the carousel went around
The anxious travelers sought and found
Their bags, intact or gently battered,
But to my foolish eyes what mattered
Was a brave suitcase, red and small,
That circled round, not mine at all.

I knew that bag. It must be hers.
We hadnt met in seven years!
And as the metal plates squealed and clattered
My happy memories chimed and chattered.
An old man pulled it off the Claim.
My bags appeared: I did the same.
-- Vikram Seth
This poem is from Vikram Seth's volume of poems 'All You who Sleep Tonight',
published in 1990. Vikram Seth is better known for his narrative poem the
'Golden Gate'.

I like this poem for its simplicity and particularly for its depiction of how a
simple thing as a familiar bag can evoke a spate of emotions emanating from a
network of memories all tied up to some attachments in the past. In some sense
we all feel that we are through with the past and yet some simple event can
trigger of an overwhelming sense of reliving those moments. The human psyche has
a remarkable ability to retain the emotional contents of events long forgotten.

What also come through is the sense of tremendous expectations raised and
lowered with a deftness by the poet in the span of the last two lines.

Abhijit Padte.

14 comments: ( or Leave a comment )

Tracy Mattingly said...

I like this poem's humor. The redundancy of the line "To claim my bags
from Baggage Claim" is funny, I guess because the line is as unpoetic as
the sign itself, and because it announces the poem's pun on "Baggage" in
such a non-subtle way.

viagra online said...

I met a young child beside a dead pony,
I met a white man who walked a black dog,
I met a young woman whose body was burning,
I met a young girl, she gave me a rainbow,
I met one man who was wounded in love,
I met another man who was wounded with hatred,
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard,
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall.

Ideas de negocios said...

Thanks for taking the time to discuss this, but I am firmly convinced of this and love to learn more about the subject. If possible, acquire knowledge, would you update your blog with more information? It is very helpful to me

Anonymous said...

hghmdfgmnjd,dh,htd hdd

Anonymous said...

Determine A - The resistance curve resulting from the strict
efficiency of the barbell curl.

Also visit my site :: visit the following site

Anonymous said...

And they give a substantially far better training than their historic predecessors.



Here is my page bowflex selecttech 552 dumbbells

Anonymous said...

Any one that hopes to modify their lifetime and get in condition.



Check out my site ... Top

Anonymous said...

Making use of glucose for energy also prevents your whole body from making use of proteins for energy.


Here is my webpage ... http://Www.Getfitnstrong.com/adjustable-dumbbells/7-reasons-adjustable-dumbbell-set/

Anonymous said...

They come by using a specialized stand to keep the weights
on.

Visit my web page; Suggested Looking at

Anonymous said...

The Bowflex 552 SelectTech Dumbbells also are available in sizes that allow them being acceptable for residence
consumers.

my blog post ... bowflex dumbbells

Anonymous said...

Normally I do not learn article on blogs, however I wish to say that this write-up
very forced me to check out and do so! Your writing style has been amazed me.
Thanks, quite nice article.

My website; money loans

Post a Comment