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Poem of the week: Autumn by Vidyan Ravinthiran
Poem of the week: Autumn by Vidyan Ravinthiran

The Guardian

time11-08-2025

  • Entertainment
  • The Guardian

Poem of the week: Autumn by Vidyan Ravinthiran

Autumn (after John Keats) The fallen yellow leaves now oftener flare red. Embers. Blown-up chilli-flakes. The burning of the library at Jaffna. Foreign dead about to break the spell of here and now. Phantasms steal into the peaceful lives we seem to have earned, telling tales about what happened to them, not us, and in a tongue I never learned. This is my garden, my spade of blood meal and from our kitchen the time-travelling smell of chicken curry floats to Walden Pond. – A swooping cardinal like a struck match. Above the fence mosquitoes eddy like opinion, crazed by a patch, of red-pink light into giddy scribbling on the air. There is no need to be ashamed. I see you there and keep alive the thought of meeting one day brightly after the next. Black mustard seed thrums in the sauce, the sky falls asleep; where feelings come from or may leap across and through and to no one can say. Tsunami-hit, shoved over at a tilt, they've left the bashed old kovil's god-thronged tower standing tallish, beyond the new one built to face, this time, becalm, the ocean's power … Our autumn clouds are a far-quarried rubble to which the changing light does spicy things. To sing, to fly, migrate, are curious verbs; beauty, like happiness, frailly reliable, has nothing to do with why there are wings, why birds build nests and sing their songs, or why barbed wire's besotted with its barbs. Contemporary poetry collections often fall into one of two dominant categories. One kind travels thoughtfully, claiming spaces in an unfamiliar elsewhere, the other stays at home, revisiting and refining material that's more familiar. Avidyā, Vidyan Ravinthiran's latest, represents for me the exploratory kind, a tour that skirts the flames of history in a relaxed almost self-effacing manner. This is especially true of Autumn. The subtitle's qualification after slyly denotes the time and distance between the two poems. Keats wrote his ode To Autumn on 19 September 1819. The England-born Sri Lankan poet is writing more than two centuries later; since Keats's time Sri Lanka has been colonised by the British, granted independence, endured civil war and seen terrible reprisals against the Tamil Tigers for their armed struggle for independence. The autumnal redness the poem evokes soon turns to fire. A rhythm of stops and starts underlines the threat: 'The fallen yellow leaves now oftener / flare red. Embers. Blown-up chilli-flakes. / The burning of the library at Jaffna.' Keats, reading over the poet's shoulder, might remember Peterloo (critics have found that massacre in his ode's possible subtext of 'surveillance') and realise that the 21st century poet is also witness to less than 'mellow fruitfulness'. Autumn soon reveals the violent biblioclasm of 1981 when Jaffna Public Library, one of the biggest libraries in Asia and a major Tamil cultural centre, was burned down by a mob that included police and paramilitaries. But it isn't books and buildings alone that have been destroyed. The shapes emerging from the poet's past become the 'foreign dead', the 'phantasms' that 'steal / into the peaceful lives we seem to have earned.' Those phantasms give their version of events ('telling tales'), further distancing the poet by speaking 'in a tongue I never learned'. The ensuing jump of imagery, from the 'garden' declared his own, to the necessary 'spade of blood meal' is effectively plotted. Danger is diffused by the magic, humour and resistance found in cookery. In many cultures, families and societies come together to eat 'grief food'. The instant 'chilli-flakes' evoked earlier are an acknowledgment of cultural compromises. Then a further unexpected move occurs: 'and from our kitchen the time-travelling smell / of chicken curry floats to Walden Pond'. There's no abruptness; the translation from the poet's garden where he now lives in the US to Thoreau's retreat is amused, peaceable, sensuous. Choosing, as Keats chose, the subversively 11-lined stanza, Ravinthiran further complicates its balance. A clearcut, almost emphatically rhymed ABAB quatrain evolves into the looser assembly of seven lines whose rhymes may sound out less distinctly. Stanza two introduces a brilliant short film of the cardinal's swoop and the responsive movement of mosquitoes that 'eddy / like opinion.' That nicely poised, concrete-abstract simile is followed by the rather more Keatsian image of the insects 'scribbling on the air'. Keats's poem always addresses Autumn. Who is Ravinthiran addressing with 'There is no need / to be ashamed'? The tone sounds loving, even lover-like, with its note of future expectation. But perhaps the 'you' is the poem, or the poet courting his muse? 'You' might also be the 'phantasms' who have helplessly spoken in a strange 'tongue'. Ravinthiran's poetic 'courtship' is oblique, questioning, almost shy: 'where feelings come from or may leap / across and through and to no one can say.' Those monosyllables form little uneven stepping stones in a swashing river. After that, the picture enlarges dramatically with the tsunami of 2004, the Dravidian temple, 'the old kovil's god-thronged tower' and the defensive new-build. These lines extend history and still find it dangerous. Conflict is suggested: the sunset's clouds are 'a far-quarried rubble' and there may be no comfort in the assertion that 'the light does spicy things' to them. Open-winged birds of possibility still circle. The conflation of truth and beauty is gently queried: the beauty of birds is mechanism, the poet says, as he hooks the reader sharply down to earth with the marriage of 'verbs' and 'barbs'. The personification of barbed wire as a narcissist fixes in a single line the worst of human nature. A tyrannical border splices the garden, its fragrances and reconciliations. Those barbs may presage a deeper colour of autumnal red.

Syan Vallance
Syan Vallance

ABC News

time23-05-2025

  • Entertainment
  • ABC News

Syan Vallance

A display of Australian Great Sun Orchids at London's Chelsea Flower Show is awarded a gold medal by the Royal Horticultural Society's notoriously strict judging team. 1h ago 1 hours ago Fri 23 May 2025 at 12:54am The UK and European Union have reached a wide-ranging agreement on security co-operation and trade at their first formal summit since Brexit. Mon 19 May Mon 19 May Mon 19 May 2025 at 10:28pm The youngest cardinal to vote in the conclave has described his experience of electing the new pope. Sat 10 May Sat 10 May Sat 10 May 2025 at 2:08am A fierce fire burning near Mount Dandenong flared overnight, with locals voicing anger about the time it took for warnings to be issued. Sun 16 Mar Sun 16 Mar Sun 16 Mar 2025 at 1:40pm Long-shelved board games are being dusted off as families on the Gold Coast make the most of prolonged outages. Sun 9 Mar Sun 9 Mar Sun 9 Mar 2025 at 12:49am Thousands of residents living along the waterways are expected to face the brunt of Tropical Cyclone Alfred. Wed 5 Mar Wed 5 Mar Wed 5 Mar 2025 at 6:36am Residents living on the edge of the Grampians National Park, in the communities of Cavendish and Halls Gap, are told to prepare for difficult days ahead. Fri 31 Jan Fri 31 Jan Fri 31 Jan 2025 at 3:16am Katelynn Clark felt certain her home would burn to the ground when a raging bushfire hit the edge of her rural property on Monday night. Tue 28 Jan Tue 28 Jan Tue 28 Jan 2025 at 9:34pm Pro-Palestinian protesters have gathered in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne, with many saying the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal does not go far enough. Sun 19 Jan Sun 19 Jan Sun 19 Jan 2025 at 7:36am Halls Gap is dependent on tourism and some businesses have lost more than a third of their income, but many don't qualify for government support. Wed 15 Jan Wed 15 Jan Wed 15 Jan 2025 at 4:04am A new generation of lifesavers will hit the beach this summer, as Australians are urged to heed warnings and swim between the flags. Sun 5 Jan Sun 5 Jan Sun 5 Jan 2025 at 6:10pm Amid the turmoil of evacuations, residents in western Victoria have provided shelter, food and Christmas cheer to those in need. Fri 27 Dec Fri 27 Dec Fri 27 Dec 2024 at 8:48pm Victorians are being warned of a "problematic" Boxing Day as extreme temperatures, gusty winds and dry bushland create dangerous conditions which may even threaten the city of Ballarat. Mon 23 Dec Mon 23 Dec Mon 23 Dec 2024 at 10:40am After a suspected terror attack on a Melbourne synagogue, Jewish Australians reflect on their hopes and fears. Fri 13 Dec Fri 13 Dec Fri 13 Dec 2024 at 7:56pm Kilvington Grammar and the organiser of a school trip have both apologised in court for the death of a diabetic 16-year-old student in 2019. Wed 11 Dec Wed 11 Dec Wed 11 Dec 2024 at 8:50am A jury finds Emil "Bill" Petrov guilty of the violent murder of Cindy Crossthwaite in her Melton South home in Melbourne's north-west in 2007. Wed 11 Dec Wed 11 Dec Wed 11 Dec 2024 at 4:39am As counter-terrorism police investigate the torching of a Melbourne synagogue on Friday, its community is fighting to save priceless Torah scrolls damaged in the arson attack. Tue 10 Dec Tue 10 Dec Tue 10 Dec 2024 at 10:36pm The extradition of Easey street accused Perry Kouroumblis has highlighted other Australians on Interpol's "red notice" list, including Anthony Sitar. Fri 6 Dec Fri 6 Dec Fri 6 Dec 2024 at 9:10pm A magistrate says a teenager facing explosives charges should remain in custody, after he allegedly downloaded graphic videos of mass murders while planning his own attacks. Fri 6 Dec Fri 6 Dec Fri 6 Dec 2024 at 4:53am Nearly 48 years after two women were stabbed to death in their Melbourne home, the man accused of carrying out the killings has been charged and faced court for the first time. Wed 4 Dec Wed 4 Dec Wed 4 Dec 2024 at 7:46am The Indigenous community that lost almost $1 million to disgraced leader Geoff Clark says it can start to rebuild now he's been jailed after a decade-long investigation. Sun 1 Dec Sun 1 Dec Sun 1 Dec 2024 at 10:52pm The parents of Holly Bowles and Bianca Jones remain at their bedsides in separate Thai hospitals as the Melbourne women fight for their lives after drinking tainted alcohol. Tue 19 Nov Tue 19 Nov Tue 19 Nov 2024 at 8:56am A report by Our Watch has revealed the average teenage Australian girl has viewed pornography before her 14th birthday, with fears it is becoming a default source of sexual education for children. Wed 13 Nov Wed 13 Nov Wed 13 Nov 2024 at 1:32am The 20-year-old victim of a fatal shooting in Melbourne's inner north has been remembered as having a "beautiful heart" and always putting others first, as police and community groups call for calm. Sun 3 Nov Sun 3 Nov Sun 3 Nov 2024 at 6:46am Judy Small has made her mark in three careers: as a family lawyer, a Federal Circuit and Family Court judge, and a singer-songwriter. The 71-year-old is one of 21 people to be inducted into Victorian Honour Roll of Women. Tue 1 Apr Tue 1 Apr Tue 1 Apr 2025 at 8:00am

Cardinal Robert Prevost
Cardinal Robert Prevost

Associated Press

time08-05-2025

  • Politics
  • Associated Press

Cardinal Robert Prevost

Date of Birth: Sept. 14, 1955 Nationality: American and Peruvian Position: Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops; president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America under Francis Experience: Archbishop of Chiclayo, Peru; head of the Augustinian religious order Made a cardinal by: Francis Francis brought Prevost, 69, to the Vatican in 2023 to serve as the powerful head of the office that vets bishop nominations from around the world, one of the most important jobs in the Catholic Church. As a result, Prevost has a prominence going into the conclave that few other cardinals have. One strike against him, however, is that he's American, and there has long been a taboo against a U.S. pope, given the geopolitical power already wielded by the United States in the secular sphere. But Prevost, a Chicago native, could be a first because he's also a Peruvian citizen and lived for years in Peru, first as a missionary and then as an archbishop. Prevost was also twice elected prior general, or top leader, of the Augustinian religious order, the 13th century order founded by St. Augustine. Francis clearly had an eye on him for years, moving him from the Augustinian leadership back to Peru in 2014 to serve as the administrator and later archbishop of Chiclayo. He remained in that position, acquiring Peruvian citizenship in 2015, until Francis brought him to Rome in 2023 to assume the presidency of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America. In that job he would have kept in regular contact with the Catholic hierarchy in the part of the world that counts still counts the most Catholics. Ever since he arrived in Rome, Prevost has kept a low public profile, but he is well known to the men who count. Significantly, he presided over one of the most revolutionary reforms Francis made, when he added three women to the voting bloc that decides which bishop nominations to forward to the pope. In early 2025, Francis again showed his esteem by appointing Prevost to the most senior rank of cardinals, suggesting he would at least be Francis' choice in an any future conclave. Prevost's comparative youth could count against him if his brother cardinals don't want to commit to a pope who might reign for another two decades. The Rev. Fidel Purisaca Vigil, the communications director for Prevost's old diocese in Chiclayo, remembers the cardinal rising each day and having breakfast with his fellow priests after saying his prayers. 'No matter how many problems he has, he maintains good humor and joy,' Purisaca said in an email. — By Franklin Briceño in Lima, Peru, and Nicole Winfield in Vatican City Return to pope contenders list

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