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Everything Begins Elsewhere

Tishani Doshi
Contents (7)
  1. Contents
  2. I. Everything Begins
  3. II. Elsewhere
  4. About the Author
  5. Books by Tishani Doshi
  6. Links
  7. Acknowledgments
[image: cover]
[image: title-page]

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Contents

  • Title Page
  • Note to the Reader
  • Dedication

I. Everything Begins

  1. Dog in the Valley
  2. Ode to Drowning
  3. Lesson 1: Building a Bridge between the Past and the Future
  4. Xuanzang Contemplates the Wonder of Sugar on His Return Home after Sixteen Years
  5. Cutting Broccoli
  6. Lesson 2: Learning Mudras in Bhutan
  7. Turning Off the Lights
  8. Falling, 1968
  9. Seasons
  10. Evensong
  11. That Woman
  12. Lesson 3: Stillness
  13. The River of Girls
  14. Ode to the Walking Woman
  15. Another Man’s Woman

II. Elsewhere

  1. Buffaloes
  2. Michael Mangal’s Dream
  3. After the Rains
  4. Found Poem
  5. Fisher-Price Men
  6. Lesson 4: Zero, or Infinity (Ramanujan)
  7. Evening on an Indian Railway Platform
  8. The Dream
  9. The Adulterous Citizen
  10. The Immigrant’s Song
  11. Madras Morning
  12. Lesson 5: Saying Goodbye to Love in Butoh Class
  13. Lines to a Lover from a Previous Century
  14. The Magic of the Foot
  15. Love Poem
  16. Lesson 6: How Not to Age
  17. Lament —I
  18. Lament —II
  19. Walking Around
  20. Lesson 7: How to Dream a Beautiful Death
  21. Homeland
  22. Memory of Wales
  23. The Art of Losing
  24. Visiting My Parents in Summer
  25. Love Poem Disguised as an Elegy
  26. After the Dance
  • About the Author
  • Books by Tishani Doshi
  • Links
  • Acknowledgments
  • Copyright
  • Special Thanks

I. Everything Begins

Everything begins elsewhere, he knows that: dawn, Christmas, love, beauty, terror, the wind, the sky, the horizon, his own soul. It begins far in the woods, or out on some windy field by the sea. He wants to be there, not here; he wants to be where things begin, and he is so close, he is so near.

JOHN BURNSIDE, A Lie About My Father

Dog in the Valley

Last night

I heard a dog

in the valley

puncturing the hills

with a sound

from a long

time ago.