When the Flowers Begin to Speak
Author: Sonali Pattnaik
Pages: 152
Year of Publication: 2021
Price: Rs 400
ISBN:
978-81-953583-4-2 (9788195358342)
About the Author
Sonali Pattnaik has a Ph.D. in English Literature from Mumbai University and has taught the subject for over a decade to graduate and postgraduate students across the country. Her areas of expertise include literary theory, film studies and gender studies. She currently serves on the Board of Studies for English, as well as Guest Faculty, at St. Xavier’s College, Ahmedabad, and divides her time between writing, practising visual art, academics and homeschooling her daughter.
Her poetry and art have found place most recently in two print anthologies by Indie Blu(e), USA, The Kali Project (2021) and Through the Looking Glass (2021), and in a forthcoming book by Wingword Poetry Competition for their winning entries. They have also been published in literary journals like Café Dissensus (New York), Muse India, The Book Review and The Indian Express newspaper. This is her first book of poetry.
Teaser
most, many, few
few will ask of the wrongdoer
why they did wrong
fewer will ask of witnesses
why they stood back watching
many will ask the survivor
why they took the wrongdoing.
most will ask these questions:
why did you wait so long to leave?
why do you feel you can speak out now?
why don’t you consider the consequences
of your speaking out on the wrongdoer?
why don’t you speak out, why don’t you leave?
why this way. why they. why you. why now.
most, many, few
but of your violence, only you
and most will believe they are
the greater common good
Contents
79 poems spread across 4 sections