50 Poets 50 Poems

50 Poets 50 Poems, published by Open Space, draws from the contents of the website Talking Poetry edited by Priya Sarukkai Chabria.

Open Space, a civil society outreach program, encourages discussion, debate and action on social justice, sustainable development and human rights issues. It is an initiative of the Centre for Communication and Development Studies.

Open Spaces: 50 Poems 50 Poets has been made possible as the contributing poets have each 'donated-a poem' to the anthology. It is an effort that reflects faith in poetry and its readership to keep alive this art that adds to our larger cultural life and our sense of multiple identities. This anthology hopes to focus on the diverse voices speaking from different cultures that enrich our lives.

Who will you see in the book? Here you go. (And apologies for any errors; this list was typed up independently, not copy-pasted.)

The Old Debate of Don Quixote vs Sancho Panza – Priscila Uppal
The Waiters – Adil Jussawala
Lines on Water – Sridala Swami
A River – Bina Sarcar
Ultima Multis: The Last Day for Many – Stephanoes Stephanides
Still Life, Basque Country – Aman Nath
For Children in Wartime – Alamgir Hashmi
Mawlai – Anjum Hassan
Tale of the Young Bride – Anju Makhija
Sat by a Poem – A J Thomas
Lost Etymologies – Arka Mukhopadhyay
Because – C P Surendran
A Pearl within an Oyster – Deepa Agarwal
Study of a Vase – Deepankar Khiwani
Of Sea and Mountain – Gieve Patel
This was Nattu – G J V Prasad
My Lover is Like the Sea – Jane Bhandari
Monologue of the Silverfish – K Satchidanand
Round of the Seasons – Keki Daruwala
Martyr – Jalal Malashah (translated by Omid Varzandeh)
Psalm: From Black Sea Sonnets – George Szirtes
Flight: 4: After the Empress Eifuku – Priya Sarukkai Chabria
Borges – A K Mehrotra
Ghazal – Nakul Krishna
Hummingword – Sampurna Chattarji
A Farewell Letter of Cherries (For Professor MB)– Kynpham Sing Nongkynrih
The Word: Selection from Echolocation – Mani Rao
Four Friends – Meena Alexander
Ass & Pandava – R Raj Rao
My Fat Aunt – Marilyn Noronha
During Breakfast – Ravi Shankar
Speaking a Dead Language – Ranjit Hoskote
Remember Icarus – Aditi Thorat
Jacket on a Chair – Sudeep Sen
Rangzen: Exile House – Tenzin Tsendue
Notes on Chris Hani's Funeral – Vivek Narayan
Diwali (Bundi, Rajasthan) – Barry Scott
Will You Let Me Write – Mythri Surendra
Life of the Imgination – Moeen Faruqi
The Inquisition – Santan Rodrigues
To Roethke – Anand Thakore
The House Next Door: for Phil Blosser – Saleem Peeradina
Stone-People from Lungertok – Temsula Ao
The Witness – Randhir Khare
To Baudelaire – Jeet Thayil
Rumi and the Reed – Taish Khair
From a Deep Dwelling – Steven Grieco
Sky Song – Mamang Dai
At the Rodin Museum – Tishani Doshi
Fire's Goal: For the Sage Sharabhanga – Laurie Patton

The book costs just fifty rupees. If you'd like a copy, please get in touch with Priya Sarukkai Chabria [surpriya34 AT gmail DOT com - you can tell her you got the address from me]. For those of you not in Pune, you may want to band together with other poetry lovers and make a consolidated order to save on postage. Caferati members in these cities, we suggest you get together with your city coordinators and pick up copies for the entire group.