Gagan Gill
June 19, 2009
Gagan Gill is one of my favourite poets. Her work is spare, stripped of excessiveness. The poems ring with controlled emotion; powerful, but oddly detached. Here are some lines I like from different poems.
Sometimes the love
of a lifetime
fades away
face to face with a dream
(From For Nancy)
She will need him
Like a sin,
Like a virtue
And will return in her body
Like a hidden wound.
(From She will come back in her body)
When love arrives on your doorstep, it will not leave soon.
It has to go to some mountain or valley. To an ocean or river.
It comes to your house out of the blue, and wants to know if
you will come along to drown with it or not.
Every love gives you enough time to die for it.
(From Every Love)
I won’t come and tell you
that these days I’m a star
lonely as stars
I won’t come and tell you
that these days
there is broken glass
in my breath
that gods pass
one by one
inside me
to revive an ancient ache
(From I won’t come and tell you)
