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| Facade of Old GMC building for the festival. |
-Brian Mendonca
Reading my poems at the Goa Open Arts
Festival in Panjim today was a heady experience. There were so many poets in the house. Curated and compered by spoken-word poet Rochelle D'Silva, our session in the indoor stage (first floor) saw the audience being treated to a bouquet of poems in English, Konkani, Hindi and Marathi.
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| Highlights. |
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| Brian reads his poems. |
The first hour from 4-5 p.m. was given to the listed poets which featured Ivan Cordo, Aaron Monteiro, Deepali Sutar (Hindi), Anwesha Singbal (Konkani) and myself. The next hour was for the open mic. Several poets stepped up and regaled the audience. The themes were on love, December, teardrops, the disrobing of Draupadi (on the mayhem in Manipur) etc. There was also a kid who read his poem on a rabbit ending with a plea that rabbits deserve to live.
When I took the stage I encouraged the poets to write about ordinary things and publish on their own. Citing my example, I said I had published three poetry books on my own. The first two were sold out. The third was getting there.
I presented the quandary of inhabiting Delhi and Goa. Where is my destiny? - I had asked in my poem 'Sea in the Sky' written 20 years back.
The anchor was always my poem titled 'A Peace of India' (1999) 'My heart is roaming / in the wild blue yonder/ but where I lie will always be Goa. '
From there we travelled to 'Srinagar' (1998). 'The dayes pass by / like a deck of cards / The ace of spades / And the queen of hearts. / Somewhere in the darkness / the future flickers. / On the highway of pain. / It's the trail that beckons.'
To conclude I read 'Mapusa Market' (2015) - an ode to an elderly aunt and uncle from Corjuem, Aldona who lived alone in their old Goan house, but passed away in Kandivli, Mumbai. This poem has been anthologized.*
I remarked that many of my poems are about those who have passed on. My latest poem 'Is it You?' (2024) is also on the same theme. The poem could be viewed on my blog i.e. www.lastbustovasco.blogspot.com.
The festival venue had a number of stalls titled 'Flea and Food' ranging from merchandise of the festival, shirts designed by artists, ladies wear, second-hand books, paintings, and postcards. Books by the poets were also kept on sale by the organizers. I left 5 copies of Jasmine City: Poems from Delhi.
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*Goa: A Garland of Poems. (Cinnamon Teal, 2017) With transcreations in Irish by Gabriel Rosenstock. Edited by Rochelle Potkar. Pic courtesy, Brian Mendonca (top and middle); Elisha de Souza (bottom). Updated 25/2/24.
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