All That Was And Is: Poetry Inspired by the Upanishads

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ALL THAT WAS AND IS, Bibhu Padhi's mystical collection of poems, is based on the ancient Indian sacred texts, the Upanishads. Each poem is a non-cerebral response to a single Upanishad mantra. They are quiet like the mantras themselves, trying to unravel and, in turn, define the Supreme and its relationship with the world and the individual or the jive. Through these lyrical meditations, everything is absorbed into a dreamlike consciousness and is illuminated in a sharp but soft light.

You are the mover and the movement.

You move, even in your stillness you move. And you are the moved who is far away, the unmoved spark of intimacy far inside you, far away from us, and yet it is you alone whom we find nearest to ourselves; you are where the hear the bodies claim to be.

You're both yourself and myself, and the more you are myself, the more you are you. And I also know you're both yourself and yet not you, you're both the distance that matters, makes us anxious, and the close proximity which you alone can offer yourself-what you so simply need n the absence of every other, including your name, yourself.

BIBHU PADHI has published eleven books of poetry. His poems have been published in distinguished magazines throughout the English-speaking world, such as The Poetry Review Poetry Wales, The Rialto, Stand, The American Scholar, Colorado Review, Confrontation, New Letters, Poet Lore, Prairie Schooner, Poetry, Southwest Review, The Literary Review; TriQuarterly, Tidane Review, Xavier Review, Antigonish Review, Queen's Quarterly, The Illustrated Weekly if India and Indian " Literature. They have been included in numerous anthologies and textbooks. Three of the most recent are Language Jr a New Century (Norton), 60 Indian Poets (Penguin) and The HarperCollins Book of English Poetry (HarperCollins). He lives with his family in Bhubaneswar.

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