"Mira pushes aside the mountain you are climbing" by Purvi Shah

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend Support Poem-a-Day November 22, 2019   Mira pushes aside the mountain you are climbing   Purvi Shah

Desire is never one way. Black           snakes crawl through your throat. The divine longs   for human proximity to divinity. The divine longs             for touch. You have not wanted   a body. And you have             wanted. A careless tongue can make chatter but unrequited love           can make an avalanche. Your teeth chatter and you know               somewhere a funeral parade is moving, one ant  after another marching. Your snake shed its skins as the curve of a                          pilgrimage           awaiting dawn. Heaven is too much a metaphor   to be of use to a lover weeping for a false love. Every shaman needs a healer and every God a devotee they can admire.   When God comes back from the pilgrimage, you are more           plump. Everyone can see your wisdoms sprouting. This time — dangerous. Even women             will cast stones. Watch the people's hands: they carry shards of their half-spoken dreams. But you have                              invented an embrace. In the first worship, you make the one devoted to devotion devoted to you.   You bring the mountain into your lips. Without   prayer, your mouth blooms.            Copyright © 2019 by Purvi Shah. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on November 22, 2019, by the Academy of American Poets. About this Poem   "'Giridhara, your name is the raft, the one safe-passage over./ Take me quickly,' declares Mirabai (as translated by Jane Hirshfield in Mirabai's 'Awake to the Name'). What does it mean for devotion to be reciprocated? To have deities devoted to us? This poem evokes a present-day Mira reinvigorating the story of Krishna (Giridhara) granting refuge to people by lifting a mountain with his finger. When we lean into our divinity, our sensuality, imagine that the gods need us too — what happens? Perhaps snakes, perhaps bloom." —Purvi Shah   Purvi Shah is the author of Miracle Marks (Northwestern University Press, 2019). She works as a non-profit consultant on gender & racial equity. Poetry by Shah   Miracle Marks (Northwestern University Press, 2019) "Muse" by Meena Alexander "Each Moment a White Bull Steps Shining into the World" by Jane Hirshfield "Fledgling" by Traci Brimhall November Guest Editor: Sherwin Bitsui   Thanks to Sherwin Bitsui, author of Dissolve (Copper Canyon Press, 2018), who curated Poem-a-Day for this month's weekdays. Read a Q&A with Bitsui about his curatorial approach this month and find out more about our guest editors for the year. A culture break, a source of daily renewal...   If reading Poem-a-Day has become a meaningful part of your day, please consider supporting this free series with a donation. Your gift makes publishing Poem-a-Day possible. Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit poets.org   Unsubscribe here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038

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