Biography of cecil rajendra poets

THE IMMORTALITY OF NOTHING and other poems

Cecil Rajendra

THE IMMORTALITY OF NOTHING (from By Trial ‘n Terror, 2004) 

On one nothing- 
much happening 
day, a wandering  
vole sidled up 
to me to whisper: 

“Know what 
the trouble 
with your poetry 
is, mister?“ 

i shook my head 

“It is always 
trying to say 
something 
about something; 
always striving 
after meaning; 
and nothing 
dates like 
a poem 
that says something. 
if you would  
your poems endure 
write about 
NOTHING; 
Nothing lasts forever.” 

— —

MY MESSAGE (from Hour of Assassins, 1983) 

And now you ask 
what is my message 
i say with Nabokov 
i am a poet 
not a Postman 
i have no message. 
 
but i want the cadences 
of my verse to crack 
the carapace of indifference 
prise open torpid eyelids 
thick coate