Wednesday, 26 February 2025

One Poem by Troy Dean Harris - Sritantra Project

 






SALAMANCA

She was born Sombra Negra near
Salamanca when plants first took

root, cuando las flores florecieron
las abejas se tornan negras en la

sombra fresca, bees gather black
honey in cool shade. We didn't

read antique tragedies until we
heard that Oedipus made babies

with his mom, named their first
girl Antigone. We named ours Rita

in memory of both our departed
parents no graphic extensions

before pre-ancient octave paths
when defiance always earned

someone's contempt and spite we
will build a constellation signum

notitia indicium soft substance
impressed beeswax smooth for

distancing effect nice that we
brought our sacks only film catches

sound bite badgering voice not
to all the commune just switch

them off. Mom. Yes Rita, what is it?
That might not ring true just yet.

Churlish talk is sexy I know the
warnings well, defiance always gets

you in trouble they have contempt
for you like a troupe of Galician

troubadores self marked in saudade
being way too agile in getting their

point across, vagueness to the degree
of torquing normal wooden frames

how else to evade the verb to be,
says the girl. Trotsky's great great

granddaughter arrived today by
steamer from Nova Scotia. It's desire

that mantles our principal objectives
force mounts from below for once

it's nice, uplifting orchard trees no
longer capable of bearing summer

loads after päron äpple svarta
körsbär all got eaten in fast order

he says. You should never have
learnt any language, she says.

Why? No one would ever have to
hear you talk. We welcome more

wildfowl to our garden commune
several types of deer here already.

But if they're good they'd be eaten
he says, on an eastward facing bluff

three of them talking overlooking
sea. Checking their ostentation he

pulls a paper cup from a small pile
of mixed litter and debris, takes it

apart by sunrise for scoring field
notes with a pen in pocket sees cats

play with baby reindeers strolling
near cottages of neighbouring blue

cloud commune none been to war
since black spire era gates were

unbolted for an agile primal hapax
verbal root with adverbial colour

onwards to a slow motion coup.
Mom at last meets Warren Path

Where're you headed Warren?
To the Edibles. Is it a shop?

No, a family outside the commune.
You'll be petrified, the girl says.

Leaflets mute gold flecks work really
well with your freckled arms, says

her mom, more brands on your body
crosses the lane traces pure threads

rigged with flax of a store window
I'll be in the book shop, Rita says

stepping down to moorings coarse
sail and cordage stowed neither 

first cycle nor acquitted hero back
from foreign wars small village at

the river mouth pale greens soft

deep blue sky half dozing or strolling
transfixed within subtopia's calming

function, a streaming presence non-
industrial no night commerce brings

repairing sleep, each day a public
carriage avers to deliver news,

new faces leave no trace of 1945's
most prominent result in humanity's

sugar laced daily fare avoidance
of the verb to be this trace extends

to cool warm magnolia colour
pallets unexpectedly melding

(s.62iv)






Sritantra Project is Troy Dean Harris, ascetic-arts researcher and curator, is the founder of Sritantra Project, under which name he has published several studies. He resides between Malabar and the Malay peninsula. His primary research interests combine the comparative distribution and modification of ancient ascetic-arts elements preserved in contemporary South, Southeast and Far-East Asian soteriological traditions. Sritantra's publications include "Streams to Healthy Living Yoga: Freeing the Source of the Ancient Bauddha" (2014), "The Savage Buddha: Gautama & the Kāpālika-vrata" (2006), "Grafting Plato’s Shadow Play, a spray can version of metaleptic mimêsis" (2006), and "The stain of sliding cloud and sea" (1990). 

In 2018, the Sritantra Project led a dawn yoga meditation at Angkor Wat as a rite of reflection on the Khmer temple's cosmic aspects for for the International Conference on Angkor Wat: The Monument and the Living Presence 28th-30th March, in cooperation with Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts.


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