Nepal
a poem for Yuyu
To dream
The impossible dream
Who is this poet
Where did he come from
Is he real
Part of the dream
Awake
Or dreaming
Does it matter
The forehead
Of the world
My vision
Outer
Inner
Other
Mother
Sadness surfaces
Recognizing the turquoise lake
Drop of ocean
Source climbing
To another destination
Never an end
Lorraine Bouchard, Montreal
Yuyutsu Sharma
Five Forthcoming New York and New Jersey Readings
December 30, 2010
Himalayan Recitals
Yuyu reading from Nepal Trilogy
at Blue Mountain Gallery
(Private reading with limited seats
Write to yuyutsurd@yahoo.com if you intend to come)
Blue Mountain Gallery
530 West 25th Street 4th floor
New York NY 10001( between 10th and 11th Avenues )
646 486 4730
January1, 2011
Yuyu reading at
The Alternative New Year's Day Spoken Word / Performance Extravaganza
between 10 and 12 pm
We have Dark Matters: The arts that hold all us
disparate individuals together! When the city, the
country and the world splits into fighting fragments,
music, poetry, and dance keep us intact. Come
celebrate our unity when other factors attempt to drive
us apart at the 17th annual Alternative New Year's Day
Spoken Word/Performance Extravaganza!
The Bowery Poetry Club
308 Bowery
(Between Houston and Bleecker)
F train to 2nd Ave, 6 to Bleecker
mail@bowerypoetry.com
212-614-0505
January 3, 2011
Yuyu featuring at
Saturn Series Poetry Reading
Nightingale Lounge
213 2nd Avenue, NYC @ 13th Street...
A short walk East of Union Square
$ 3 Fee
Every Monday night at 7:30 pm
Open Mike + 1 or 2 features
Sign up at 7 pm, Starts 7:30 to 9:30 Hosted by Su Polo & David Elsasser
http://www.supolo.com
http://www.supolo.com/Saturn_Series_Poetry.html
http://www.nightingalelounge.com
Saturday January 13
Lower Branch Library Hosts Poetry Readings
Yuyu Reading as Special Guest at
the Launch of Diane Hamilton’s
Lizard Licking, Donegal & Other Poems
Lower Branch Library Hosts Poetry Readings
2600 Bayshore Rd., Villas
The Lower Cape Branch of the Cape May County Library invites the public to listen to the readings of poetry by two guest authors, Diane Hamilton and Yuyutsu Sharma. The program will be held on Thursday, January 13th from 6-7:30 p.m. during the workshop of “The Pleasures of Poetry for all Ages,” at the Lower Branch Library. The library is located at 2600 Bayshore Rd., Villas.
Author Diane Hamilton will read from her new book “Lizard Licking, Donegal & Other Poems.” Hamilton was born in Philadelphia; she is a first-generation Irish-American whose father came to the U.S. from County Donegal. She attended New York University and received a BFA in Film and TV in 1988. Hamilton subsequently received an MA in Public Librarianship from Rowan University and is currently Assistant Director of the Cape May County Library in Cape May Court House, N.J.
Yuyutsu Sharma is the recipient of numerous fellowships and grants and is a distinguished poet and translator. Sharma has published eight poetry collections and translated and edited several anthologies of contemporary Nepali poetry into English. The Library of Congress nominated his recent book of Nepali translations “Roaring Recitals; Five Nepali Poets” as Best Book of the Year 2001 from Asia under the Program, A World of Books International Perspectives. Sharma works have been translated into seven different languages. He currently edits Pratik, A Magazine of Contemporary Writing and contributes literary columns to Nepal’s leading daily, The Himalayan Times.
For additional information please call 886-8999 or visit online at www.cmclibrary.org.
Saturday January 15
Utopian Directions
7 West st.
Warwick N.Y..
6:00 pm
David Austell's Little Creek & Other Poems Several fellow poets will read from the book, and there will be live music and multi-media. Little Creek is an astonishing anthology of poems from well-known American educator and poet, David B Austell Containing the best of Austell's work written over a decade, Little Creek begins with memories of his childhood in a small American town set against the backdrop of Vietnam and other wars, reminiscent of Robert Lowell's Life Studies. The poems range from a meeting with a namesake in his afterlife, the morning star over a Protestant valley, a last day at Lake Baikal, the inheritance of wars thrust upon his nation and the people, an Indian student reminding him of the immense gulf between East and West, and finally to poems inspired by an imagined NASA conquest of Olympus Mons. Establishing Austell as a master craftsman, the 'roaring turbulence' of these poems will, for sure, leave his readers breathless. For Austell is a poet who takes his vocation seriously, filling the gulfs and gaps between far-flung worlds with the incantations of his prayer-like poems. Vibrant from a contemporary American idiom, and voluptuous as 'her long legs and round hips', these poems are at the same time 'thin as a strand of DNA'. "An impressive and wide-ranging intelligence permeates David Austell's ambitious first book of poems. Austell is a new poet with a seasoned soul, and the treasures of this collection are manifold and rich. He has a gift for narrative, a sharp eye for detail, and a passion for language. Austell writes from both the head and the heart, and the poems that result are capacious, and substantial enough to reward rereading. Here is a bold, promising debut ." Deborah Landau, Director, NYU Creative Writing Program, poet and author (Orchidelerium), New York University, United States "David's poems are complex, yet concise and genuine, as in his 'A Ghost Among Ghosts', where he evokes the culture and history of Asheville, North Carolina with both knowledge and compassion." Pierce Pettis, songwriter and recording artist (Compass Records), Nashville, Tennessee, United States "Austell is equally at home waiting for the New York subway, on Mars, and under the waters of the Chesapeake Bay. To each setting he brings verve, compassion and imagination. He makes the reader laugh, and he makes the reader care. Poems to be read and re-read. Christopher Southgate, British editor and poet (Easing the Gravity Field), Dartmoor, United Kingdom "Austell's is a world beyond heights, a passion not only for the earth but also for the spheres beyond it. Here's a voice that's steady and sanguine, earthly and sublime, contemporary and timeless, a voice rising above all polarities, singing songs of unattainable and imagined summits, fervent hymns in praise of globes nameless to the human imagination..." Yuyutsu Sharma, poet (Space Cake Amsterdam; Annapurna Poems) and editor, Nirala Series |
Wednesday, November 17 ·6:00pm - 8:00pm | |
| Location | Bowery Poetry Club , New York 308 Bowery (between Houston and Bleecker) New York, NY |
|---|---|
| More Info | Yuyutsu reading from his new Nepal Trilogy and Space Cake, Amsterdam and Other Poems. Yuyu's New Nepal Trilogy with over 70 poems and 700 photos with distinguished German photographer, Andreas Stimm will also be launched at the event. Yuyutsu Ram Dass Sharma has published eight books and translated and edited several anthologies of contemporary Nepali poetry. His work has been translated into German, French, Italian, Slovenian, Hebrew, Spanish and Dutch. One of his books of translations was nominated by the Library of Congress as Best Book of the Year from Asia. Yuyutsu has published seven previous poetry collections including Space CakeAmsterdam (Howling Dog Press, Berthoud, Colorado, 2009); Annapurna Poems (Nirala, New Delhi 2008); Everest Failures (White Lotus Book Shop, Kathmandu, 2008); Way To Everest: A Photographic and Poetic Journey to the Foot of Everest (Epsilonmedia, Germany, 2006, with German photographer Andreas Stimm); and a translation of Irish poet Cathal O’ Searcaigh poetry in Nepali in a bilingual collection entitled Kathmandu: Poems, Selected and New, 2006. He is a recipient of fellowships and grants from The Rockefeller Foundation, Ireland Literature Exchange, Trubar Foundation, amongst others. His works have appeared in Poetry Review, Chanrdrabhaga, Sodobnost, Amsterdam Weekly, and several other magazines. Currently, he edits Pratik, A Magazine of Contemporary Writing, and contributes literary columns to Nepal’s leading daily, The Himalayan Times and Newsfront Weekly. He recently published his first novel, Annapurnas, and a book of his prose writing on the ongoing political turbulence in Nepal, entitled Stains of Blood (Nirala Publications 2009). |
Over 60 poems from Yuyutsu R.D. Sharma published with photographs by famous German photographer Andreas Stimm
THE NEPAL-TRILOGY PART I-III
Photographs and Poetry about the Nepal areas of Annapurna, Everest, Helambu & Langtang
www.Nepal-Trilogy.de·www.Nepal-Trilogie.de (ISBN 978-3-9810883-2-8) (english-deutsch)
PREFACE
“To do justice to the landscapes and peoples of the highest mountains in the world requires a sensitivity and skill not given to all of us. Andreas Stimm and Yuyutsu R. D. Sharma have succeeded, in this trilogy of photographs and poems, in bringing to life an extraordinary region in all its striking beauty and natural harmony. The unique combination of their photographic and poetic skills succeeds in laying bare the very soul of the Himalayas, the smiling warmth of its inhabitants and its dramatically beautiful peaks and valleys.”
His Excellency Mr. Keith George Bloomfield
Former British Ambassador to Nepal
Nepal, Kathmandu 2010
Invitation
Book launch
Distinguished Hebrew poet
Ronny Someck’s
Baghdad , February, 1991
& Other Poems, A Bilingual English/Nepali Collection
Translated into Nepali by Yuyutsu RD Sharma
His Excellency Mr. Dan Stav,
Ambassador of Israel
has kindly consented to launch the book and be the Chief Guest.
Date: June 29, 2010, Tuesday
Time: 3:00 pm
Venue: Nepal Tourism Board
Brikuti Mandap, Exhibition Road , Kathmandu
Organized by White Lotus Book Shop, Kupondole
in collaboration with Nirala Publications
RSVP: 5520248, 9803171925
ET AL
The Flowers of Córdoba
Yuyutsu RD Sharma
Córdoba.
Far away, and lonely.
Full moon, black pony
olives against my saddle.
Though I know all the roadways
I’ll never get to Córdoba.
Through the breezes, through the valley,
red moon, black pony.
Death is looking at me
from the towers of Córdoba.
(Lorca, “Song of the Rider”)
Spanish poet and translator, Veronica Aranda read the poem aloud as we walked in mild drizzle under a mottled Mediterranean sky.
Unlike Lorca, I did reach Córdoba. Walking under the towers where Lorca prophetically imagined death on the lookout for him, I had a feeling of being in a power place. In the palace packed with people and reporters, controversial French poet Michel Houellebecq started the festival with his solemn recital. This is the place where the Spanish Inquisition was planned, where seeds of Columbus Crusade lie. A minute ago in the famed gardens I had joined the fellow poets from around the world-- Ana Marcos, Ana Istaru, William Ospina, Robert Hass, Sebastia Alzamora, Amalia Bautista, Nicole Brossard, Ma Auxiliadora Alvarez, Arnaldo Calveyra, Abbas Beydoun, Elisa Biagini, Fatima Naoot, Edoardo Sanguineti for a photo shoot.
Córdoba is fighting to be the cultural capital of the European Union for 2016. I was there last month to launch a Spanish translation of my poetry, named, “Poemas de los Himalayas ,” published this year by Cosmopoeticia International in collaboration with Juan de Mairena y de libros. They had set up several readings in schools, art centers, state prisons and other public venues in the county.
Córdoba like Nepal has this great cultural past, a syncretisation of various religions and civilizations. Romans came in 2nd century BC and ruled Córdoba for close to nine centuries. Then under the Islamic rule (711-1263) Córdoba became a great intellectual and political center, followed by Christian victory when the Castile defeated the Western Caliphate from Córdoba. La Mezquita (The Mosque) by the edge of the river Guadalquivir stands as an enduring symbol of Andalusia history. The city holds central place in the history of Europe and the remnants of ancient Islamic, Jewish and Catholic religions are visibly intermixed in the contemporary life and architecture.
Walking in the Spanish streets with lurid balconies and patios fragrant from orchids and geraniums was a stroll down the European history’s narrow lanes. This was the place where great Greek philosopher Seneca was born and Jewish philosopher, Maimonides wrote his ground breaking works, “Astrology is a disease, not science.’ World famous painter Picasso hails from the Andalusia .
My first reading was in a Córdoba secondary school. Hundreds of children gathered in the auditorium. Soon I realized the situation I had stepped in. Shortly I learnt that the students understood very little English. My translator poet Veronica hadn’t arrived from Morocco where she worked at Cervantes Center , I was thinking of an interpreter that Jacqueline Hamil, English teacher of the school came to my rescue. Washington-born Hamil was kind enough to interpret throughout the event. She also translated the other poet, Araceli Sanchez Franco reading along at the same event.
I began my reading with a Namaste, “It is great honor to read my Himalayan flowers to little flowers in this hall.”
A pin drop silence. No response. At loss, I turn to Jacqueline. She translates what I have said and then a roaring thunder rants the air, assuring room for a dialogue.
Arcelia read poems about Potla Palace and Dalai Lama as her parents have been practicing Buddhism for decades. About half a dozen students had prepared to read my poems in Spanish. One little girl came to the dais, leaned over her Spanish teacher sitting next to me and shyly said, “What if they laugh at me.”
Eventually she read my poem on Nepali poet Gopal Prasad Rimal, earning applause for her electric recital.
After the event, even when the teachers had left, those hip hop flowers stayed on briefly, their cell phones zooming in and out to pose with the poet from the other end of the world, from the rooftop of the world.
The writer can be reached at writer@yuyutsu.de
