Life on Mars

Selachology

Demon Fish will enlarge your shark knowledge from the 'Jaws'. It was amazing to know that sharks reproduce anywhere from 2 to 100 young. With reference to shark gods and the Lemebe legend, the author pulls the readers in to the book.
Shark virgin births add to the mystery of sharks.
Shivji moved from studying plants to sharks.
Ammer in Raja Ampat
Shark repellants to keep humans and sharks apart.
on NPR

Selachology

Another dream

What law is it
where you can not
put things back
into the package
they came from

My dresses wouldnt
fit into the baggage
When I go back to
retrieve my baggage
A session is on
in the room
I have to forget
about all the
stuff that I was
carrying.

A dream

Under a low wooden deck
I lie watching the sky
filled with dark clouds to the
side of deck facing the ocean

As a ship passes by
I feel the water
undulating me

Life in Abstract America

A Good American

The author is an immigrant to Missouri. There lies his main interest of the book. The book is narrated by James who ' was the only one who had nowhere but to look back'. He is the grandchild of the German immigrant couple who are fortunate to meet helpful people.
The narrator writes of an eventful life of his family, ancestors and the community. The book is interesting to read but not something that will leave an indelible impression on your mind. The first generation's struggle has the reader spell bound with how things are going to work out for them. I kept wondering how would Joseph's success story be. The book delivers with its unexpected twists and the narrator learning his own story while yarning out the rest of the town's. The story always stays within the town limits. The extremes are provided in the stories by making the families incomplete with either a father or mother sacrificed for the story. In every alternate chapter, theres a death.
With a lot of 'tiger mom' gusto to music, I expected something grand from the family members. 'A Good American' seemed a good context for the first generation's story to hinge on. For Joseph looked at America as a place where 'future was the only thing that mattered'.But the later on generations had too quotidian a life.
Author's interest in jazz music, playing sax and cooking/eating are all reflected in the book with a bar with live music turned to a restaurant back to bar.
4/5

Whats worthy of poetry?

Night of the republic

Kaadedi kavitakanarham kukkapilla, sabbu billa, aggi pulla - Sri sri

This telugu line means that even a puppy, soap bar or a match stick are not incapable of being poetry subjects.
A note about the titles in the book. They are common places that you encounter in your life. The poet's palette is full of the most familiar and obvious elements like the restroom indispensables of soap and towel.
His
Of the canned goods and foodstuffs
Stacked in columns onto columns
Under columns pushed together

Into walls of shelves
Of aisles all celestially effacing
...
Of bodies that have picked
Packed unpacked and placed
in the poem `Supermarket' are reminiscent of the pepsi and cola cans which have been arranged in different colors to form human features.
His choice of words looms at you like the blocks in a tetris game. The reader is required to be on their toes.
His `Parkbench' poem is a juxtaposition of all things and events that happen in and around a park bench in the endless reel of time.
Even though the poet writes on everyday objects, he makes them interesting by discarding their static being and imbuing them with an organic quality. For example, in
`Stone Church'
Each stone is another
stones resistance

Bell ringer

At Bashas, I saw a person ringing a bell. I didnt know that they represented salvation army.