A VISION OF ETERNITY AT THE
KHAJURAHO TEMPLE.
India, so many things are true, –
The dancing gods by jasmine colonnades;
But one of all the myriads haunts my sleep, –
The sprawling girl who rides her broken beast.
Her breasts are firm as stone, as round as loaves;
She blesses with the ease which floods her body,
Her slanting hips, the promise of her womb,
Her loin-cloth light as breath, – the almost seen,
To make our careful sculptor bite his lip.
She says: “Ignore the knotting in your guts;
My maker died, unsatisfied and famished.
Forget the snake that stiffens to a flute:
The generations come and go forever;
But I still wait for someone. Is it you?”
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Gary Bills was born at Wordsley in the West Midlands. He was educated at St Chad’s College, Durham University, where he studied English Language and Mediaeval Literature, and he now works in Herefordshire as a journalist, and as a fishing writer.
His poetry has appeared in numerous publications, including The Guardian, Magma, HQ and Acumen, and he has had two full collections published, – “The Echo and the Breath” (Peterloo Poets, 2001) and “The Ridiculous Nests of the Heart” (bluechrome, 2003). In 2005 he edited “The Review of Contemporary Poetry” for bluechrome.
Gary has given professional readings at the Ledbury Poetry Festival, Poetry on the Lake in Italy, and at the Poetry Trend Munich Festival in 2010. His work has been translated in to German, Romanian and Italian.
Abegail Morley 