Jhilam Chattaraj: Mixed Art Poetry

  • KODAI CINQUAIN VARIANTS 12.4.6.8.21 - a close up of a clover flower
  • A blue sky - the text reads Clouds break— like liquid eggs. Strings of moisture, unplay— wind-skinned pleasures evaporate— blue joy.
  • Close up of a bug on a leaf - the text reads: I wake through mystic noons— translate the wind’ s fury— trees confess man ’ s cool deception— grey truths.
  • A rifle leans near a rack of balloons to shoot at - trees and vegetation behind - the text reads Sweet dew, hills ’ hue, don ’t fade — balloon-bursts seize joyscapes — I try— puncture seven airships — red-rhymes.
  • The sihouette of horizon against a red sky - the text reads: Splendour of rich-red skies hail Durga ’ s Saptami— peace-prayers, fire hymns — sacred glow— nightfall.

Jhilam Chattaraj is an academic and poet based in Hyderabad, India. She has authored the
books, Noise Cancellation (2021) Corporate Fiction: Popular Culture and the New Writers (2018)
and When Lovers Leave and Poetry Stays (2018). Her works have been published in Mekong
Review, New Contrast Magazine, One Art Poetry Journal, Calyx, Ariel, Room, Porridge, Queen
Mob’s Tea House, Colorado Review, World Literature Today and Asian Cha among others. She
received the CTI Excellence Award in ‘Literature and Soft Skills Development,’ 2019 from the
Council for Transforming India and the Department of Language and Culture, Government of
Telangana, India. Her poem, ‘Sari’ was nominated for the Nina Riggs Poetry Award, 2023.