The Golden Labyrinth: Poems - Softcover

Simon, Maurya

9780826209955: The Golden Labyrinth: Poems

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0826209955 ISBN 13: 9780826209955

Publisher: Univ of Missouri Pr, 1995

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The poems in Simon's captivating fourth volume describe the labyrinth of India, an overwhelming, difficult place for a foreigner to explore, but a country that seems to offer a transcendent good at its core for those who can learn to find it. From a ragged boy spontaneously bursting into song on a street corner to a beggar-woman whose offering of all she has left - a frail dirge - "defies her terrible hunger," Simon's images remind us again and again of what she learned in India that "each small world transforms itself."

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About the Author

Maurya Simon teaches creative writing at the University of California, Riverside.

Review

Alex In Hindustan
Ars Femina
At Ranganathithu Bird Sanctuary
At The Kabini River
Banded Krait
Bangalore Lullaby
The Bishop Of Mysore
Commercial Street
Dharma
Elegy In A Snowstorm
The Flying Swami
The Golden Labyrinth
In The Nilgiris
Karma
Karma Again
Kodaikanal
Leah In The Vale Of Tears
Letter From Bangalore
Maya
Meditation At Twilight
Monsoon
Mothers Of Invention
Nagarahole
Periyar Lake
Pondicherry
Pride
Radha Addresses Krishna
Russell Market
Shiva's Prowess
Solitaire
Street Scene
Tableau Vivant
Taj Mahal
Tribals
The Ugly Dog
Veerappan
Village Market
Want
The Yogi Speaking
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder�

In The Golden Labyrinth, Maurya Simon draws on her own experiences while living and traveling in southern India, where she witnessed almost daily the extremities of the human condition -- dire poverty and opulent wealth, frenzied materialism and stoic spirituality, excruciating suffering and ecstatic joy. Many of the poems address the continual confrontation with the fluctuations and turmoil in others' lives so different from Simon's own, while others attempt to integrate and understand the religious, philosophical, and ethical motives and behavior of the people she met in India. The poems describe the labyrinth of India, a frightening, desperate place for a foreigner to explore, but a place that seems to offer a transcendent good at its core for those who can learn to find it. From a filthy boy spontaneously bursting into song on a street corner to a beggar-woman whose offering of she has left (a frail dirge) "defies her terrible hunger", Simon reminds us again and again of what she learned in India: that "each small world transforms itself". -- Midwest Book Review