Siesta (poem)

"Siesta" is one of the best known poems of Shampa Sinha, the Indian born Australian poet. The poem won First Prize in the Fifth All India Poetry Competition conducted by The Poetry Society (India) in 1993.^[1] The poem was the second major award winning work of Shampa Sinha after she won the Best Young Poet award at the Third National Poetry Competition in 1991.

Excerpts from the poem

After lunch

when the files had ceased buzzing

over the food-littered floor

and the air was still and heavy

when only the soft plop

of drops from a leaky tap

broke the quiet

*****

my wrinkled grandmother

would ask me to comb

her long wet hair

and as the comb furrowed

through the dark shining mass

and the smell of her coconut hair oil

*****

her lips would tell me

of how an illiterate peasant

had obtained the gift of rhymes

from the Goddess Saraswati

of how the new-born Krishna

escaped the wrath of a jealous king

*****

I would look on

with sleep-drunk eyes

as she recited Sanskrit verse

in a grating sandpapery voice

and when her eyes closed in comfort

and her breathing became as rhythmic

as the poetry she had chanted

through the long lazy afternoon,

I would tiptoe

Up to the old wall clock

to see

if time had stopped.

Comments and criticism

Shampa Sinha wrote the poem when she was a 22-year-old student. The poem has received rave reviews since its first publication in 1994 in the book Voices of the Future.^[2] The poem has been frequently quoted in scholarly analysis of contemporary Indian English Poetry.^[3] The poem is regarded by critics as a jewel in contemporary Indian poetry.^[4]

Online references

• | First National Poetry Competition 1988 - Award Winners
• | Liberation Magazine - L'Art de la Sieste
• | India Writes - Contemporary Indian Poetry

See also

• Indian English Poetry
• The Poetry Society (India)
• "Best Indian Poems"

Notes

1. "Award Winning Poems - AIPC 1993".
2. Voices of the Future by H K Kaul, Virgo Publications, 1993.
3. "Fourteen Contemporary Indian Poets – Rana Nayar in The Tribune".
4. ""India Star Literary Review - Shampa Sinha's Siesta".