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Sipping the Jasmine Moon (Selected Poems)

2019142 pages

About the book

She stashed away her private moments, this woman sheltering them from the dour censoring eyes of the world. And now they had gold-browned the insides of her brains in a wild grown honeycomb that glistened under their questioning eyes. ( An Autopsy ) ‘I strive for economy in expression and look for a concise way of putting things. A deeper reason is the desire to leave a pool of silence in the reader’s mind. A writing should both create and sustain the silence of reflection in a reader’s mind.’ (Lakshmi Kannan in reply to Sudha Rai’s comment on the short, pithy feminist wisdom in her poems. Excerpt from the interview.) ‘Flowers fit for the gods. The scent of jasmines was heady in the porch. I didn’t touch the buds though but watched the moon descend on the waters in the bowl, clear, round, liquid. I sipped at the jasmine moon there was more of it. ( Ask for the Moon )

‘Kannan takes off into the world of Buddhism. In another successful poem “Nelumbo Nucifera” she writes:
Above the muddy water, you the lotusbloom dew fresh, clean and unsulliedby the filthy swamp below.That’s how, said the World Honoured One,the lotus keeps its head above the waters.’
For the most part I am left with a sense of renewal as I read and reread her poems. The poems seem to open up something in me.’
Jayanta Mahapatra
‘Many of Kannan’s poems absorb the spirituality underlying Hinduism, Christianity and Buddhism. The poem “That Friday” powerfully evokes the cleansing, healing and purifying power of Christ’s blood on the cross, on Good Friday.’
CHRISTINE GOMEZ
‘There is an impish delight in the woman who eludes science in the brilliant poem“An Autopsy.” The male world even tried to prove scientifically, using craniology, that a woman’s brain is less endowed.’
C.T. INDRA