Thankyou for your generous and frankly heart warming responses to my previous post. I sent it from India. I have been at Jaipur Literature festival and then Mathrubhumi International Festival of Letters in Kerala. Though the photographs are all from my time in Kerala I am back in London now and I need to explain.
Anita Nair, Margaret Busby and myself speaking of why we write under a giant tree at MBIFL2020 It has been inspiring to be amongst so many people celebrating the written word..
Thankyou for the openess of your comments. And thankyou for the private messages. I am okay. Indeed, I am well.
Luke Daniels spoke of men on a panel about domestic violence alongside distinguished feminist journalists and scholars. This discussion was a highlight of the festival.
In the previous blog I mentioned the girl in the queue at Blackwells in Oxford. Her name is Annie. She responded tin comments “I’m the girl you met in Oxford, waiting for new lungs. Sending a hug your way and hoping you have brighter days ahead – be kind to yourself x”
This is a really good literature festival idea. It is a giant plaster book sculpture for authors and audience to sign.
While at MBIFL2020 in KeraIa I asked a man “How are you today?” He looked in the distance and said “my wife died three years ago. Life is like a film” he said “This part is cut now. She has gone. Put a foot in the river and the river changes. Take it out. Put it in again and the river has changed again”. His name is Sathianath. I asked him what it means. He said “It means truth”.
Interview with Nileena. Nileena means omnipresence.
We are all distraught at times. Emotional spirits rise from the heat of living. We all have individual pains, missing people. Isn’t it a writers oblgation to speak of the high and the low. We should talk more so that we can live with ourselves because
(l to r) Andrei-Kurkov-Tensin-Tzundue-Janice-Pariat-Neethi-Ravindran
If we can live with ourselves, our stories of darkness and light, then we are not dying inside . Truth.
I took a walk in the botanic gardens in Thrivananthaparum
This is the sea in Kerala filmed by the poet Janice Pariat. She took a break for a walk.
I think it’s so true. I find writing in the dark moments affirming. It’s like my constant when everything else is a bomb. Connecting with the reader too, as you do so beautifully. It hurts. Life hurts. Being human, I guess. But then I remember, (like muscle memory now), love and meaning. Those two things, like a pair of good walking boots. 🙂
Thanks journey Ginny 🙂
Good to t/walk 🙂 x
Lemn the poetry of your words is always their truth; and it’s truth that shines the light into the darkness. I had somehow missed your previous post – in my own dark place- but have read it now and want to send love, and gratitude for your vulnerability in sharing your dark moment with us as well as the light. It validates our pain to have it named. It’s our solidarity in our woundedness and the unbearable burden of the suffering and injustice in this world. We don’t need plastic happiness. We need honest tragedy, for when our hearts are too small to bear life’s suffering alone. We need be our authentic broken selves, and sometimes sit in that dark place – honouring the tough journey and survivorship that brought us here. And then reach out, as you did, and allow the warmth of the response to bring light and love that transforms the very darkness itself. So next time maybe the door is wider open and the light reaches further in and chases some of the demons away.
Thank you and bless you, may Their face shine upon you, light and love.
Thankyou
Reading and listening and following you dear Lemn. Didn’t leap in with comments/advice/consoling words when you posted such heartfelt honest feelings recently. But somehow, somewhere, connected in empathy and fellow feeling/shared experience. Would be good to wrap that around a beer or a coffee or a curry with you sometime.
All very very best.
Nod
Hey Nod. I will be in Bath at some point. If you are in London let me know. You have my number. It’s still the same. Best Wishes Lemn
I’ll keep you posted about a London trip – you do the same re Bath. Will be good to meet.
aye
Thank you for sharing the festival.
thanks.