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| Meena Alexander (courtesy WBC) |
“Impossible Grace”,
an evening focusing on the writing and personality of Indian poet Meena
Alexander, took place in the intimate setting of the Willy Brandt Centre,
Jerusalem, on December 6th 2019. Moderated by Petra Klose, the centre’s Social
Art Project coordinator, we heard several of Alexander’s poems read by Karen
Alkalay-Gut, with interludes played by flautist Michal Tikotzki.
Petra Klose, who had
known Meena Alexander personally, spoke of the evening’s event as marking a
year of the poet’s death, adding interesting biographical information on the
poet, as well as personal memories of their meetings in Jerusalem and
Alexander’s strong ties with students and with Jerusalem. Born in Allahabad,
India, Mary Elizabeth Alexander (who always went by the name of Meena,
eventually changing it officially) was raised in Kerala and Sudan, also
spending time in Europe and the United States. In New York, she was
distinguished professor of English at Hunter College and at the City University
of New York. She earned a BA at Khartoum University and a PhD at Nottingham
University. Described as “undoubtedly one of the finest poets of contemporary
times” (The Statesman, India), she was the author of numerous collections of
poetry, including “Atmospheric Embroidery” (2018), “Birthplace with Buried
Stones” (2013), and “Illiterate Heart” (2002), two novels and a memoir -
“Fault Lines” (1993). Her poetry, which has been translated into several
languages, explores themes of feminism, post-colonialism, migration and dislocation,
memory and reconciliation, also revealing the search for identity that came
from the peripatetic life she led.
Several of Meena
Alexander’s poems were read by Karen Alkalay-Gut. Each beginning introduced a
subject, then to burgeon into an astoundingly vivid, sensual myriad of
almost-visual images, fragmentary memories of childhood and reflections on her
experience of a mix of different traditions, moments of joy, of loss or fear,
the poet's observation of situations presented with resignation, sometimes drawn
together by questions to herself. “Refuge”, for example, is a rich canvas
highly representative of the breadth of Alexander’s evocative writing:
“Under my skin
In syllables
untranslatable
With blue from the
backs of snails
Plucked from the Dead
Sea
I have marked the
name of God,
On my wrists where
the blood trembles
On the delicate skin
of my throat
On my eyelids shaped
Like fishes I have
pricked and pierced
With my pen…
I have kissed the
eyes of the child
Who fell off a
fishing boat
Who barely floated,
who swallowed
Sand and could not
breathe.
I have unlaced his
red shoes
And set them by his
side
I have knelt by his
shoes
And watched them fill
With the breath of
the Unnameable
And foam from the
breakers
Of the Mediterranean
sea.
I want him to live with
me
In a house made of
wind and water
And sky. Who am I?
“Shook Silver”, a colourful picture of shipboard life through childhood
memories, represents the poet’s recurring descriptions of journeys and
change of location:
“I was a child on the
Indian Ocean.
Deck-side we dance in
a heat- haze,
Toes squirm under
silver wings.
Under burlap someone
weeps.
Amma peers out of the
porthole,
Sari stitched with
bits of saffron,
Watch out for flying
fish
She cries.
Our boat is bound for
Africa…”
Explaining the value
of her art, Alexander had said: “The poem is an invention that exists in spite
of history. We have poetry so we do not die of history". Karen
Alkalay-Gut’s reading of the poems was crystalline and objective, profound and meaningful, as she took
time to unfold each idea, each gesture, thus enabling the audience to hear
every word and process the wealth of detail, to engage in the power of
language of each poem.
Meena Alexander’s
poetry lends itself to music. Indeed, some of her poems have been set to music.
In an interview for the Asian American Writers’ Workshop, she was asked what
superpower she would most like to possess. Her answer was: “Always hearing the
music that allows the poems to flow.” Interspersed between the poems at the
Willy Brandt Centre event, pieces performed by flautist Michal Tikotzki invited
the listener to pause, to listen, to think, indeed, to savour some of the
finest works written for solo flute. Her playing of G.P.Telemann’s
Fantasie No.3 for flute solo, set in the plangent key of B minor, was pensive,
imaginative and sonorous, tastefully embellished, its Allegro abounded in good
cheer and humour. In keeping with Baroque performance practice, Tikotzki
(playing a modern flute) was as economical in her use of vibrato in the
Telemann as she was in the ensuing Sarabande from J.S.Bach’s Partita in A minor,
this played with exquisitely shaped phrases and spontaneity, as the artist
showed the listener through one of Bach’s most beguiling and aristocratic
pieces. And then there is “Syrinx”, the 1913 ground-breaking,
quintessentially French piece for solo flute, composed by Claude Debussy for
the last act of Gabriel Mourey’s dramatic poem “Psyche”. The nymph Syrinx is
pursued by the god Pan; not returning his sentiments, she hides from him by
turning herself into a reed. Tikotzki’s playing of the piece was evocative,
lush and sensuous, as she took time to recreate its natural course, its sense
of the unexpected, tinging it with dynamic flexibility, the piece’s long final note gradually
dying away to leave the listener deep in thought.
Concluding the event
with a reminder of Meena Alexander’s connection and involvement with the
diversity and complexity of Jerusalem, Petra Klose reminisced about an evening
at the Indian Hospice in Jerusalem’s Old City in January of 2012 she and Meena
Alexander spent listening to a recording of Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto and
discussing life, philosophy and music, following which the poet penned
“Impossible Grace”, weaving a set of miniature- and richly-coloured
vignettes, each set at one of the gates of the city:
“At Herod’s gate
I heap flowers in a
crate
Poppies, moist
lilies—
It’s dusk, I wait.
Wild iris—
The color of your
eyes before you were born
That hard winter
And your mother
brought you to Damascus gate…
At Zion’s gate I
knelt and wept.
An old man, half
lame—
He kept house in
Raimon’s café,
Led me to the
fountain
At Golden gate
Where rooftops ring
with music
I glimpse your face.
You have a coat of
many colors—impossible grace.”
Retired professor
from Tel Aviv University, Karen Alkalay-Gut has published much poetry in
different languages as well as articles on poetry. Her most recent collection
was awarded the Leyb Rubinlicht Prize for Yiddish Literature. She has appeared
around the world, including at the Library of Congress, the University of
Innsbruck and the Israel Festival, Jerusalem.
Solo flautist of the
Israel Netanya Kibbutz Orchestra and a member of the Israel Contemporary
Players, Michal Tikotzki studied at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance,
the Berlin University of the Arts and the Geneva Conservatoire de Musique. She
has played and soloed with orchestras worldwide and is the recipient of several
awards and scholarships.
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| Karen Alkalay-Gut(K.A-G.com) |
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