By a string of peculiar circumstances, little Miss 10 found herself in a long conversation with an elderly gentleman in which the pair of them were completely engaged and the delight in their voices was heard even when the words themselves weren’t audible to me. I longed to be part of it but did not want to shift the balance in this sunshiny place so I kept myself at a distance.
This month – she wants to be a policewoman or a poet so when the elderly Indian gentleman became known to her as a bona fide poet “with books and all” – her sociability, interest and curiosity reached dizzying heights.
Being that she’s currently learning about poetry, and is herself the author of a good dozen or so, this led to a grand exchange of thought and opinion sprinkled liberally with not just recitations from each, but occaisional cartwheels from the younger.
Their conversation flowed from poetry to drama, to their travels of the world (India, France, Spain vs Geraldton, Jurien Bay – you know), their interest in languages (12 languages vs learning Italian plus sharing space and conversation with another gentleman who teaches Latin) to species of orchids and right back round to poetry again.
The whole thing lasted 23 hours short of the day she later said she could have listened to him for, and a golden time-freeze occurred when his cultured voice spoke words as a song – of the first he ever had written.
They sat in the garden these two in the sun while he spoke his poem-song tailored to the moment.
(And here it is as he later wrote it out for her)
IN MY GARDEN
Standing am here alone
Watching a paradise of my own
Surveying the garden, my happiness
In my freedom and lonliness
Watching a vast green expanse
While in my solitary stance
I feel a perfect serenity
To watch love and beauty in harmony
Now here I am on my own green lawn
Entranced by flowers in the morn
I feel I’m cornered, spellbound by witches
But then, its worth ten kings riches
Ajit Sripad Rai Nalkur
His first poem – written at age 11