Contraction

By Ravi Shankar b. 1975 Ravi Shankar

Honest self-scrutiny too easily mutinies,

mutates into false memories

Which find language a receptive host,

Boosted by boastful embellishments.

Self-esteem is raised on wobbly beams,

seeming seen as stuff enough

To fund the hedge of personality,

Though personally, I cannot forget

Whom I have met and somehow wronged,

wrung for a jot of fugitive juice,

Trading some ruse for a blot or two,

Labored to braid from transparent diction

Fiction, quick fix, quixotic fixation.

As the pulse of impulses

Drained through my veins, I tried to live

Twenty lives at once. Now one is plenty.

Source: Instrumentality (Cherry Grove Collections, 2005)

Biography

Poet Ravi Shankar grew up in Virginia, earning a BA from the University of Virginia and an MFA from Columbia University. His collections of poetry include Instrumentality (2004), a finalist for the 2005 Connecticut Book Awards; the collaborative chapbook Wanton Textiles (2006), with Reb Livingston; and Deepening Groove (2011), winner of the National Poetry Review Prize.

In reviewing Instrumentality, Djelloul Marbrook . . .

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