The Purple Poets
Bloomsbury Workshop
to contact the
Purple Poets,
for readings, festivals, workshops
or for permissions to print or perform,
please e-mail the Purple Poets:
poets AT purplepoets.com
or contact our secretary: Ferdous Rahman
rahmanferdous AT hotmail.com
......................................................................................
The Purple Poets
poetry workshop leader Kim
Morrissey
Bithi Das
I came to England in 1967 at the age of 29. I worked as
a computer operator and retired in 1998. Then I had plenty of time to do
things that I like to do. I became a world traveller and saw many
countries.
In 2002 I came to join Third Age Project where I found lots of opportunities
to fulfil myself in every aspect, such as Arts and Crafts, Cookery Club and
Poetry Club, in 2005, where I started to learn to write for the first
time in my life. All thanks goes to my teacher, Kim, who encouraged us to
write from the bottom of our hearts.
Bithi and the World: Bithi continues to be a world traveller. She went
to Antarctica at the age of 71, and since then has toured Afghanistan
2010, and will spend Christmas 2011 in Italy). Bithi is
also a committed peace activist, and was inspired
to write a poem for Hetty Bower,
Peace-maker, celebrating Hetty's
life-long commitment, Walking for Peace. Read
distinguished journalist Damon Tabgor's account of his
travels in Afghanistan in 2010, with Bithi Das, at
The Exdeditioner Online.
www/theexpeditioner.com/2011/01/05/travel-to-afghanistan-the-next-frontier/
Bithi and Art: Bithi has done art projects with the British Museum,
including taking part in the acclaimed Bengali Community Bicycle Rickshaw
(2010), Tent (2008) and Boat (2007). Her poem, 'Ophelia, this Is Your Mother'
is part of Wellcome artist Jo WOnder's bacterial
Ophelia art poetry, music project, which was first show-cased at the
2009 National Poetry Day Celebrations, Camden Town Hall. This film will be
featured in an up-coming conference featuring Art and Ophelia, organised
by Ayla Lepine, at the Courtauld.
Bithi read her 2009 'Camden Heroes' poem for
Tagore at the Tagore Society UK's 25th anniversary
Tagore Festival at the Scoop in October 2010; she presented a copy of
the poem to Shenda Amery, the sculptor of the Tagore Bust,
at the official launch in Gordon Square, in 2011. A
copy pf her poem can be found at The Tagore
Society Library.
Bithi and fellow Purple Poet Islam Molla also
take time to read for the blind in Bengali and English, and Bithi's poem
'Remembering Tagore' will shortly be translated into braille, as part of
the Purple Poets' REMEMBERING TAGORE 2011 project.
Purple Poets Christine Newall (left hand side) and Bithi Das (right hand
side)
with Councillor Martin Davies (centre) photograph courtesy Rosemary Howes
editor, Camden Golden Gazette
Project : National Poetry Day
2009
Day Four, with poems, including Ophelia, This is Your Mother by Purple Poet Bithi Das
and Ophelia (the person you are calling) by Kim Morrissey first
shown at the Purple Poets' Camden Heroes
National Poetry Day Celebration
Camden Town Hall
October 8th 2009
www.jowonder.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-rEcC04ZCk&feature=player_embedded
'Ophelia'
first shown at the Purple Poets' Camden Heroes
National Poetry Day Celebration
Camden Town Hall
October 8th 2009
PEOPLE
(read at the 2010 Workshoping AGM,
July 24, 2010 Glastonbury
introduced by Martin Simon)
A NATIONAL TREASURE
(written for the 150th Anniversary Celebrations
of the National Hospital of Neurology
and Neurosurgery Benefit, June 26, 2010)
FORGETTING JANAN BAGI
(written for the Wellcome artists Prick Your Fingers
and West Eustn Workshop members
SNAKES AND LADDERS communal arts project
for the Cumberland Market Picnic June 26 2010
read to the Mayor of Camden ,
Councillor Jonathan Simpson,
at the opening of the Poetry Tree.
MY GARDEN
(written for the 2010 Camden Green Fair)
03.06.2010
My guru Kim asked me to write
something for today and read it in front
of my fellow travellers. My writing is:
Today
the 6th of August
Hiroshima Day.
The World is celebrating
Today - the Day of Peace.
Today, we are in
a war-torn country
it is not only our journey
to discover Afghanistan
but also, in a way, a Peace mission.
Our contribution to
poor naked people
will be to give them love
and happiness
during our journey.
Peace
is a very powerful word.
When there is a war
there will be a peace
so our prayer for today is:
Peace
on earth
and every corner
God save his children.
Amen.
Bithi composed and read this poem on August 6th 2010
to fellow travellers Danny (journalist, New York), Peter (Professor, Seattle),
Valerie (anthropologist, Winnipeg), Cameron (retired lecturer Eton College,
Slough), Kent (businessman, Thailand), Sue (importer/exporter, Balham, London)
and Jess, group leader for Hinterland Travel (Yorkshire) at the breakfast
table, of The Bamyan Guest House, Bamyan, Afghanistan.
I haven't seen Jesus in heaven
But I saw him in this world
Surrounding us.
I saw him the other day
Driving the bus.
I asked him if he could take me to the station
It was before 9 a.m. He looked at me
with smiling face asked me to get in the bus.
I didn't see any angels from heaven
But I saw them in this world
Surrounding us.
They are born with the virtue of angels
Always giving care and comfort to others
Saying - We will miss you and think of you.
They are here in this world
Surrounding us.
It is the people who make heaven and hell in this world
Surrounding us.
Bithi Das was invited to read on behalf of the Purple Poets
at the Workshoping UK AGM in Glastonbury on July 24, 2010,
introduced by the head of Workshoping UK, Martin Simon.
(Her reading of this poem was submitted as part of the 24/7
world video project by Ridley Scott; this portion was facilitated
by Cally Road Workshop broker Kirsty Burns).
The first draft of this poem was written by Bithi on
29.01.2007.
BITHI DAS Forgetting Janan Bagi
(The Game of Heaven and Hell)
'Snakes and Ladders'
Wellcome Indic Sanskrit MS 276,18th Century
It was my childhood game
lots of screaming and crying!
Me and my brother and cousins, who wins or who loses.
I know the game but I cannot read the board.
It is in Sansrit, which I studied sixty years ago.
This square, 68, is the Heaven, Nirvana.
And this mouth of the snake is Seduction
leading back down to square 2 - Mada. Desire.
Heaven. Nirvana. Seduction. Desire. That is all
I remember of this very spiritual game. Snake and Ladder.
My teacher would be so disappointed.
BITHI DAS Aria's Scientific Experiment:
A Five Minute Ice Cream
(for Aria Sen, who is only ten)
POETRY ON A PLATE
summer inter-generational project
21.08.2009
You scream
I Scream
It is little Aria's
Scientific Dream.
A five Minute Ice Cream.
In a bag
Mix the chocolate, sugar and cream
Put the mixture
In a salty- ice rim
All goes in our purple box.
THEN
Shake your arm
Shake your ass
Don't worry
It won't smash.
Five minutes gone
The ice cream is done
Now the time to test
A story …
not an ordinary story
But an extraordinary
Love story.
Perhaps
Every country
Has its own love story.
New Zealand is no exception.
This love story belongs to a glacier.
The Europeans call this glacier Franz Josef
Named for Franz Josef the First Emperor
of Austria in 1865. This is the history.
While travelling, I came across
This beautiful glacier
The only glacier in Southern Island.
At a glance, it looks milky white,
So calm and high up, as if it has come down
From heaven.
The Europeans call it Franz Josef.
For the Emperor Franz Joseph the First.
but it is the sacred place for Maori people.
They call it Ka Roimata o Hinehukatere
(The Tears of Hinehukatere).
Legend goes that Hinehukatere, a young girl
loved climbing the mountain,
And persuaded her lover Tawe
To climb with her.
Tawe was a less experienced
But loved to accompany her always.
Until, one day, an avalance swept Tawe
From the peaks to his death.
Hinehukatere was broken-hearted
And her many many tears flowed down
The mountain and froze to form the glacier
called Franz Josef by the Europeans
But always, to me, it is Ka Roimata o Hinehukatere
The Milky Tears of Hinehukatere.
5 Pence
By Bithi Das
written 20.03.2009
performed at the Story-Telling Session
March 21st 2009
H-Pod
Today I am going to tell you a story. It’s called 5 Pence. I had to
do some shopping so I went to the local Sainsbury’s one Friday afternoon.
I got my things and came to till to pay for my foods. A young lad in his
20s was in that section. I noticed he had a badge that said trainee. He checked
in my goods and gave me the change back. I was tired and my back was hurting
very seriously.
I wanted to have a rest by sitting down. There were a few chairs nearby and
I sat down. The coins were still in my palm, and I saw that five pence was
missing. I went back to the boy and showed him the receipt and the change.
The boy said, mum, I gave you the five pence I remember. I said, but that
five pence is not there. The boy gave me five pence with an unhappy face.
I came back home, took out all my goods from the bag and suddenly I found
a little coin of five pence lying in the bottom of my bag. It slipped in
my bag without my knowledge. I felt guilty and decided to go back to Sainsbury
and give that coin to that boy, because it is only thing he and me knew and
nobody else.
Next day was Saturday, I went back that very morning to search for him but
I couldn’t find him anywhere. I went to the information desk and spoke
to the supervisor about him, to ask where he is? The supervisor said: ‘
it was his last day yesterday, he has gone back to college and he is no longer
with us’. I felt devastated, and told my story to her and I said I have
come to apologise to him and I wanted to give back the 5 pence. She looked
at me and said I wish more people were like you. She asked me to put the
coin in the donation box, which I never noticed before. I put back that 5
pence and came out of Sainsbury with great relief.
Selwa
Al – Amina
Allah sent her
To this world
With the gift of
Knowledge and compassion.
A little women with
Great heart
Compassion for human-being
Specially ladies
How to be well and fit
To survive in this harsh world.
Her sweet voice and rhythmic dance
Makes her an example
How to be an angel
In this beautiful world.
Selwa Solely Magical.
Bithi Das first performed her poem 'Selwa' at the launch of
The Purple Poets' Book Exchange Box for the Surma Centre,
Robert Street, West Euston, at 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday,
April 1st, 2009 (National Book Day).
TWO POEMS: by Bithi Das
INTER-GENERATIONAL POETRY PROJECT
Easter 2009
I was asked to join a children’s poetry group
I was curious to know the children as poets
It was after school in the evening
I entered the room
I sat on the chair
There came a little girl called Naomi
She already had a poem
And she wanted
to make a card
to put her poem
On the front page
she put her name and age
Asked my age and name
Said to me:
you are my grandma
Second time I went again, after school
This time was a little boy
Called Didonne also age 7
I helped him to make a card
He put his two poems
inside the card and decorated it
I asked him to write on one side
“to my mummy”
and other side “to my daddy”.
He looked at me and with grief said
I have no daddy
I saw his sorrowful eyes, sadness all over
That sorrow over spilled my heart. I wanted to comfort him
But that very moment came Naomi
Said to me: you are back
I missed you
I was touched
I felt like a bag of cotton wool
One side - sadness of Didonne,
other side - joyfulness of Naomi
over spilled my heart and body
They might not see me any more
and will forget me in due time
But that very precious moment
I became another person
– a grandma with genuine love
That memory will stay with me
forever until I die.
Memory For Ever:
Playing Musical Chairs
With the Mayor
for Jill Fraser by Bithi Das
10.06.2007
Jill Fraser. The distinguished person
With a distinguished name. 'The Mayor of Camden'
It was a sunny summer day, 2006
I was asked to join Family Sport Event
By the Boys of Surma Centre
Regent's Park
It came in my mind
The Mayor is coming to
Open the event! I came and waited
For her to arrive.
A big car came, and there she was:
A beautiful Lady in her pink
Salwar Kamiz - Indian outfit. The Lady Mayor.
She was surrounded by people
Who wanted to greet her.
In due course
The Event started.
There were many games
Mostly for children.
I was asked to join the game
For the grown-up ladies
Called Musical Chair.
Jill joined too.
Jill and I stayed side by side.
It was the moment when we became
Just like children trying to secure our seats.
But we didn't win.
Soon Jill and I were out.
But during our play, I saw Jill's face
A little girl, enjoying her past
Forgotten days.
Bithi Das was inspired to write this poem
after Jill Fraser,
2006 Mayor of Camden, opened the London Workshop's
2006 National Poetry Day Celebrations, hosted by The Purple Poets
(Diorama Gallery Euston Square, West London).
Purple Poet Bithi
Das (last person on the right) as a Munchkin in the
2009 TADs production of Wizard of Oz,
directed by Gary Kielty, Dick Collins Hall, West Euston.
Purple Poet Jean Watt (first person on left) as The
Cowardly Lion, post-wizard. All the TADS have taken part in National Poetry
Day 2010, as Friends of the Purple Poets.
From left to right, Purple Poet Jean as cowardly Lion, Purple Poet Eileen
as the Scarecrow (2nd from left), Peter as Tinman, 3rd from left, Kathy as
Toto, 4th from left, Bridget as Dorothy, 5th from left, Anita as Head of
the Munchkins, 6th from left, Bithi Das, munchin, 7th from left. Cast missing
from photograph: Rita (Wicked Witch) Margo (Good Witch) and Martin (Wizard).
Photograph: Tony Bloor , Third Age Project.
BITHI DAS
