[843] Love in a Bathtub

Guest poem sent in by Vidur <vidur_b@>

Years later we'll remember the bathtub
the position of the taps
the water, slippery
as if a bucketful of eels had joined us ...
we'll be old, our children grown up
but we'll remember the water sloshing out
the useless soap,
the mountain of wet towels.
'Remember the bathtub in Belfast?'
we'll prod each other -

 	-- Sujata Bhatt

alright, so you never ran my submission of that wonderful wonderful
kamala das poem 'the looking glass'. [we did, actually - poem #804 -m.]

but i do feel indian women poets besides eunice (whose work i've
enjoyed ever since i studied under her) deserve better representation
on this list. so here's a delightful little poem by sujata bhatt.

ok, so sujata bhatt doesn't really belong to this genre: but she is of
indian origin and a lot of her work is influenced thus. there's little
comment i have to offer for this poem. i just love the way in which it
captures the essence of growing old together. two people who've shared
their lives, know each other so well and who can enjoy one another
through intimate moments like this from their past. private moments
that are theirs and theirs alone to treasure: 'remember the bathtub in
belfast?'

-vidur

Links:

  A biography and an interview with Bhatt:
    http://www.carcanet.co.uk/authors/b/bhatt.html

From: suresh@ (Suresh Ramasubramanian)

Hi

Commenting on an ancient poem here - as I was introducing a friend to
the joys of minstrels :)

>Guest poem sent in by Vidur <vidur_b@>
>                             Love in a Bathtub
> Years later we'll remember the bathtub
> the position of the taps
> the water, slippery
[...]
>alright, so you never ran my submission of that wonderful wonderful
>kamala das poem 'the looking glass'. [we did, actually - poem #804 -m.]

Well, the man actually likes Kamala Das :)

>but i do feel indian women poets besides eunice (whose work i've
>enjoyed ever since i studied under her) deserve better representation
>on this list. so here's a delightful little poem by sujata bhatt.

Yup.  An excellent poem.

>comment i have to offer for this poem. i just love the way in which it
>captures the essence of growing old together. two people who've shared
>their lives, know each other so well and who can enjoy one another

What this reminded me of was a much older poem - a scottish poem.
Robert Burns of course.

"John Anderson, my Jo"

Hmm... you've already run it, I see - and quite early in the history of
Minstrels.

http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/19.html

Is there _any_ poem y'all haven't run yet? :(  

/me is waiting for a suitable occasion when you can present to the world
at large a "best of minstrels" - a week's worth of the best poems which
have been featured so far on minstrels.

Hmm... Minstrels completed three years on 9 Feb.  Or it'd have been a
great idea for a third anniversary celebration.

Pick some other day (preferably soon) will you? 

	--srs

From: "Ramachandran" <ramachandran.ar@>


Hi,

I am a great admirer of Sujata Bhatt's works. Can you mail me her 'My
mother's way of wearing a saree'. I have misplaced the book. If there is
an online link, can you provide the link to the same please?

AR
____________________________________________________________________________________
In School, you get the lesson and then take the test. In Life, you take
the test and then get the lesson.

From: "Pragati Bidkar" <pragatibidkar@>

hi,
cn i submit any poems for your anthology?? Or do you publish only well known 
and great poets?

I have a few poems on poetry.com

Thanks



'The only thing to fear is fear itself'




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