Soot Red: And Other Poems

By Sandhita Chandra

Three years worth of contemporary Indian poet Sandhita Chandras work, written during her time as an undergraduate student in Delhi, highlights the young writers coming-of-age. These 51 poems contain her evolution from an uncertain style to a definitive aesthetic, cataloguing ideas that range from the unwaveringly feminist and anti-imperialist, to slice-of-life stories and humorous haikus. The transformation mapped in these pages, from childishly dark to self-consciously clever, is rare in its wit and honesty.

Read Sandhitas maiden poetry collection for the words she wholly owns as she comes into her own with amusing musings and political perspectives.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Partridge Publishing India
• Release date: Oct 27, 2017
• ISBN: 9781543701128

Sandhita Chandra

Sandhita Chandra is a tea lover and literature student from Delhi who has written and edited for numerous journals. Her maiden publication promises to delight and surprise at every turn with its playful use of language and strong political undertones. When she isn’t writing, she enjoys debating, blogging, and long walks on the beach. Her other writing can be accessed at: hellopoetry.com/crepuscule (poetry) thefablesoup.wordpress.com (academic)

Book preview

Copyright © 2017 by Sandhita Chandra.

ISBN:                  Softcover                        978-1-5437-0113-5

                            eBook                              978-1-5437-0112-8

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

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Contents

Mine

They talk of beauty

Stages in Recovery

Soot-red

Shower Thoughts

In our Alternate Universe

Flye

Haiku Experiments

Instant

Choices

Lïve

Luce

Book mark

Ink Black

Explorer

Demerara

Record

Thunderstorm

Brain Freeze

Bakhtin

Shards of Light

Breaking Even

Big City Dreams

We Are Not Alone

Morning Garnish

Token

Teas

Swimming Pool

Seasonal Breeze

Disgraceful & Disoriented

Cycle

Gardening

Cornerstone

Love Me

Calligraphy

Shear/Share

What does Love taste like?

An Ode, In Code

Onion-girl

(Luke)warm

Snowflake

Punch

Floss

Reds

Acknowledgements

About the Author

Everything we see hides another thing; we always want to see what is hidden by what we see.

—René Magritte

A word after a word after a word is power.

—Margaret Atwood

Mine

W ords belong to everyone,

but you could put some together

in the order that you wish

like no one else could

and they become yours.

Words belong to everyone,

these mystical, magical things;

they can be twisted and turned

to the way your tongue talks

and they are your own.

Words belong to everyone

but some of them are mine.

They talk of beauty

T he taller kids told her, fevered, in math,

Like they’d been telling everyone all