Cargo Literary Magazine

Compelling stories of human development through the lens of travel

  • Home
  • Issues
  • Features
    • Creative Nonfiction
    • Photography
    • Poetry
    • Review
    • Visual Art
  • Submit
  • Blog
  • About Us
  • Contact

Festival Fractals of the Subcontinent

February 18, 2016 Sheri Vandermolen

Artist Bio:

Sheri Vandermolen has served, for fifteen years, as editor in chief of Time Being Books, an independent publishing company based in St. Louis, Missouri. Her projects have included overseeing the archives for and compilation of The Complete Poems of Louis Daniel Brodsky (a series that comprises verse spanning five decades) and managing four collected-works editions.

She has also facilitated the publication of dozens of individual poetry and short-fiction volumes. She graduated summa cum laude, with Phi Kappa Phi academic honors, in 1990, and relocated to Bangalore, India, in 2008. Exploring the subcontinent via camera and pen, for a full six years, she ultimately formed the manuscript Jasmine Fractals, organically generated from experiences as mundane as a trip to the local city market and as distinct as a visit to the Maha Kumbh Mela (considered the world’s largest gathering of humanity, for a single event).

Her verse pieces have been published in various international literary journals and anthologies, including Camel Saloon; Contemporary Literary Review India; Earthen Lamp Journal; Muse India; Jersey Devil Press; Papercuts; Taj Mahal Review; Veils, Halos and Shackles (edited by Dr. Charles Fishman and Smita Sahay); and Verse-Virtual.

 

Maha Kumbh Mela Sheri Vandermolen

with wandering steps, back into our reality,

grateful to have beheld such magical humanity.

• • •

Maha Kumbh Mela Sheri VandermolenAll are ash-coated, head to toe, shivering and yet

exuberant
• • •

Maha Kumbh Mela Sheri Vandermolen

• • •


Maha Kumbh Mela Sheri Vandermolen

draped in…swaths of marigolds

…surge to the river, hand in hand, for their holy dip,

proving that, in being clothed solely by the sky and bathed by the Ganges,

they have pleased and received Lord Shiva.

• • •

Maha Kumbh Mela Sheri Vandermolen

seated, turbaned, mystically smiling guru swamis

surrounded by dozens of obliging attendants

• • •

Maha Kumbh Mela  - Sheri Vandermolen

• • •

Maha Kumbh Mela  - Sheri Vandermolen

let the glistening oranges, purples, reds catch the breeze

• • •


Image by Sheri Vandermolen

Circus-light-bright powders fly

by the fistful,

into buckets of water

(hard to come by, in the dry season),

filling pichkari gun barrels

with fuchsia-blooming H2O,

for ten-year-olds to aim

at every passing friend-foe.

• • •

Maha Kumbh Mela  - Sheri Vandermolen

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)

Related

About Sheri Vandermolen

Sheri Vandermolen is editor in chief of Time Being Books. From 2008 to 2014, she resided in India, exploring the subcontinent via camera and pen until her repatriation to California. Her verse has appeared in various international journals, including Ashvamegh, Boloji, Camel Saloon, Commonline Journal, Contemporary American Voices, Contemporary Literary Review India, Earthen Lamp Journal, Foliate Oak, Jersey Devil Press, Muse India, Papercuts, Poetry Quarterly, Shot Glass Journal, Taj Mahal Review, and Verse-Virtual, as well as in the anthology Veils, Halos and Shackles: International Poetry on the Oppression and Empowerment of Women, by Kasva Press (editors Dr. Charles Adès Fishman and Smita Sahay).

Filed Under: Blog, Photography

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Subscribe to to receive new issues and updates from Cargo Literary Magazine.

Tags

Africa Alaska Art Brighton England Canada Central America China Cuba Egypt England Europe France Germany Greece Guatemala Home Hungary India Israel Italy Japan Madrid Mexico Nepal New York City Niagara Ontario Oregon Paris Paris France Philippines Poland Puerto Rico Sahara Singapore South Korea Spain Syria Thailand Tibet travel Turkey Veranasi India Vietnam writing life
« Reading Period Open for Cargo’s Issue #5
Seven Clans »

© 2023 · Cargo Literary Magazine · Website by SunriseWeb.ca