You Left Mid-Sentence: Eunice De Souza, 1940-2017 (TheWire.in Shefali
Balsari Shah)
https://thewire.in/162839/poet-writer-eunice-de-souza-passes-away-obituary/
Eunice de Souza was a legend who notoriously “terrorised (successfully) the
bank manager” as well as her contemporaries, colleagues and generations of
students (even college principals have been known to quake before her). Her
weapons: an acerbic tongue and devastating wit bolstered by impeccable
logic. She was a true savant whose departure leaves a gaping hole in our
intellectual sphere.
Eunice has been widely acclaimed as a poet, novelist and anthologist of
19th and 20th century Indian writing. She was also a critic, columnist and
writer for children. Her first book of poetry Fix (1979) was hailed as “…a
practically perfect book, and one of the most brilliant first books I have
encountered” (K.D. Katrak, The Sunday Observer). Most of the poems seem at
first to be caricatures of the Goan community, but are in fact
minutely-observed revelations, occasionally indulgent but more often
critical. There are also several wrenching poems about the poet’s own
fraught and unresolved relationships. Her mix of trenchant observation and
the confessional with more than a touch of self-deprecation and black
humour became her distinctive style, reappearing in later collections,
Women in Dutch Painting (1988), Ways of Belonging (1990), Selected and New
Poems (1994), and A Necklace of Skulls (2009), unabashed even in her last
volume Learn from the Almond Leaf (2016)
Noted poet Eunice De Souza passes away: The Hindu (Kenneth Rosario)
http://www.thehindu.com/books/noted-poet-eunice-de-souza-passes-away/article19385390.ece
Eunice de Souza (1940-2017): Poet and inspirational teacher who lived with
enjoyment and defiance (Scroll.in Rochelle Pinto)
https://scroll.in/article/845438/eunice-de-souza-1940-2017-poet-and-inspirational-teacher-who-lived-with-enjoyment-and-defiance
Noted poet Eunice de Souza passes away: Indian Express
http://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/books/noted-poet-eunice-de-souza-passes-away-in-mumbai-4772767/
Eunice de Souza, poet and professor of literature, passes away in Mumbai
(FirstPost.com)
http://www.firstpost.com/living/eunice-de-souza-poet-and-professor-of-literature-passes-away-in-mumbai-3870175.html
Eunice de Souza speaks about her edited anthology of Indian poetry
(Scroll.in)
https://video.scroll.in/845412/watch-eunice-de-souza-1940-2017-speaks-about-her-edited-anthology-of-indian-poetry
Mumbai: Eunice de Souza, poet and literature professor, passes away (FPJ)
http://www.freepressjournal.in/mumbai/mumbai-eunice-de-souza-poet-and-literature-professor-passes-away/1112425
Renowned poet Eucine de Souza passes away (AsianAge)
http://www.asianage.com/metros/mumbai/300717/renowned-poet-eunice-de-souza-passes-away.html
Five Poems: Eunice De Souza
ONE MAN’S POETRY
Irony as an attitude to life
is passé! you said
So be it, friend.
Let me be passé and survive.
Leave me the cutting edge of words
to clear a world for
my ego.
The rage is almost done.
My soul’s almost my own.
Chances are
my father himself
didn’t wish to die.
My mother watched by his bedside
and never forgave herself
for being asleep
the night he died.
He left a desk, a chair,
a typewriter, and a notebook.
At family gatherings
my mother smiled
in her best faded chiffon
and travelled third
with her in-laws travelling first
in the same train.
As I grew up
I longed only
to laugh easily,
all that emerged
was a nervous whinny.
My limbs began to scatter
my face dissolve
my love would hold me close
for hours when I could
neither speak nor weep,
bring me food and feed me.
>From him I am learning to love.
HE SPEAKS
Well, now tell me
what would you do to a
woman who wrote to you
saying: You haven’t written
for three weeks. You’re the
meanest man alive. Not even
an exclamation mark at the end
and she sends telegrams and
express letters saying it was
a joke, love, it was a joke.
I did what any self-respecting
man would. I ignored her for
a week. Her pleadings wore
me down. She was an affectionate
creature and tried hard, poor dear,
but never quite made the grade.
She would walk too close to me
and then protest naively: How
should lovers walk? Show me:
Ridiculous, too, her unseemly
mirth when I said confidently:
I have such an hypnotic effect
on women. Everywhere I go
they fall into my arms.
Jamie Bond! she cried
My man is India’s answer to
Jamie Bond!
After that pathological display
I decided there was only one
thing to do: fix her.
The next time we were making love
I said quite casually:
I hope you realize I do this
with other women.
FOR A
CATHOLIC
FRIEND
You madden me
with your enthusiasm
for everybody and everything.
One day it’s peace meetings
in Cyprus that will save the world
another day it’s Pentecostal feats
in Ohio the banging of cymbals
and oh-but-it’s true
the Holy Spirit appears.
I cut in, dyspeptic.
You stop, startled into tears.
I’m chastened. You’re not Catholics
I re
