Masala Mala: Poems from India

This collection of poems was written within the maelstrom of India and conveys the tastes textures and feel of the subcontinent. Here is the ancient complex and modern civilization with its heat dust kaleidoscope of saris litter packed trains caparisoned elephants moonlit nights Mosques Temples Churches Synagogues and Meditation Centers beggars computer scientists beaches macaque monkeys plastic trash banyan trees and the spoken musical voices of its brides Brahmins preachers widows college boys aristocrats radicals professors and mothers. India has a unique power to seduce repel and elevate; these poems make those powers concrete - you can smell the incense auto exhaust and chai. For a moment the great old metamorphizing giant of India is held visibly aloft in a net of word rhythm and image.