Soni Somarajan - On The Wings of Imagination

Update: 2021-07-16

Description

Soni Somarajan says he has lived two different lives in a single lifetime.

The first part is all memory and the second part is the world today. And he fears he might lose the first due to the enormity of the second. Because for the last 30 years, Soni has borne the brunt of a progressive neuromuscular disorder. Two thirds of the time, he has to make do with a permanent sidekick - a wheelchair. It's almost as if he has accessed a parallel world.

In his seminal poem "Dream Selfie", he says -

The next morning,

all of it comes back to me,

as always.

I’m running;

wish I knew where.

The grass is spangled dew,

light twitches, ripe lemon.

At the far end, the earth

nosedives.

What’s beyond I can’t see.

With these muscles

I’m pleased —

smooth, speedy.

I accelerate at will.

No acid build, just

the kick of fleeting feet.

I almost fly.

Wait.

I can’t catch up —

whispers my wheelchair.

Soni Somarajan is a poet, copywriter, editor and content consultant. His poetry and writings have featured in several anthologies, magazines and journals. An alumnus of the University of Iowa's IWP Advanced Poetry Summit 2013, Soni is the Creative Head of The Quarantine Train, a poetry collective, and he lives in Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala.

His book of peerless poems "First Contact" is a continuing bestseller.

Welcome to Red River Sessions, which is presented by Uncut Poetry, where we talk to published poets, about their poetry, their craft and what haunts them. It is brought to you by Red River, which is the premier independent publisher of poetry books and Uncut Poetry, a much-loved poetry podcast.

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Details of music used in this episode -

The Forest and the Trees by Kevin MacLeod

Link: https://filmmusic.io/song/4494-the-forest-and-the-trees