From the Ganga to the Tay by Bashabi Fraser sampler
The Ganges and the Tay, the largest water courses in their two countries, are sources of life, conflict and industrial and historical change. The Ganga and the Tay is an epic concrete poem in which the River Ganges and the River Tay relate the historical importance of the ties between India and Scotland and their contemporary relevance as a natural symbol of continuity and peace. The poem is illustrated with beautiful photographs of both great rivers, which explore their shared, but unique, personalities through their histories, geographies, mythologies and environments.
The Ganges and the Tay, the largest water courses in their two countries, are sources of life, conflict and industrial and historical change. The Ganga and the Tay is an epic concrete poem in which the River Ganges and the River Tay relate the historical importance of the ties between India and Scotland and their contemporary relevance as a natural symbol of continuity and peace. The poem is illustrated with beautiful photographs of both great rivers, which explore their shared, but unique, personalities through their histories, geographies, mythologies and environments.
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and Odin 4<br />
would ordain<br />
in years <strong>to</strong> come.<br />
They call me <strong>the</strong> <strong>Tay</strong>.<br />
The truth<br />
is, I <strong>to</strong>o have a bay –<br />
my Firth.<br />
I have this isthmus<br />
of an island<br />
<strong>to</strong> cross.<br />
But yours is <strong>the</strong> earth<br />
where I would not be you –<br />
a sub-continent spread out<br />
for your good<br />
or your ill will<br />
<strong>to</strong> brazenly <strong>to</strong>ss in.<br />
This <strong>to</strong>o is north<br />
but fur<strong>the</strong>r north than you.<br />
They have laid out<br />
<strong>the</strong>ir broad hills<br />
for me <strong>to</strong> encircle<br />
and cut through<br />
spilling over<br />
rocky beds<br />
under heights<br />
so ancient and wise,<br />
wea<strong>the</strong>red <strong>to</strong> gentleness<br />
unlike <strong>the</strong> heady rise<br />
of your stately but<br />
youthful fold mountains. 5<br />
ganga: Yes, it was <strong>the</strong>re<br />
where I awoke<br />
<strong>to</strong> provoke<br />
<strong>the</strong> world<br />
<strong>to</strong> my capacious flow.<br />
When I left Shiva’s<br />
coiled tresses
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