Poetry

Poetry is a great medium to play with words, sounds and ideas about anthropology. If you have a poem about fieldwork, ethnography, or any anthropological topic email Nafisa Fera, the RAI's This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Poem by: Nafisa Fera

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So what are these folks studying?

For one, this thing's about seeing how to unpack our mysteries,

sophistries and histories

longside other far-out ways of being.

But who's looking for 'Ways to Be'?

Metaphoric'ly speaking, you 'see'

The most peripheral 'vision, 're-framed with

(something approaching) 'precision'(!)

opens out what it means to say 'we'.

So anthropology speaks to 'we-dom'? Of the kinds you may find in free-dom?

Add the powers we practice, plus the knowledge we lack

'tis so way beyond being zero-sum.

Our games here turn somewhat dour (netting praxis, knowhow +power)

Me now need a shower, or an ecologically brief

wipe down, with fig-leaf.

Poem by: Siddartha Chaterjee

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The Hospital Nursery

Look at the newborns,
Each a different face,
Different texture of hair,
Different accent and race.

Then a stranger came in,
From where I’m not sure,
And told for each child,
What was in store.

Kelly will think,
Fatima estranged
To succumb to a marriage
Her parents arranged.

Mike will own pretty things
And work hours on end.
But John will only desire
To subsist with a friend.

Toa will demolish
Some fried chicken feet,
Making Mary choke
On her chocolate covered treat

Ruth will view witch craft
With bemused defiance,
Then preach the Bible
As if it was science.

Chai will embrace the wrinkles
That prove him wise,
As Cindy covers hers
With a plastic disguise.

Yeliz will cook a sweet curry,
With an exotic flavour
And share it around
With her many a neighbour.

Yet Lisa will live
Near someone she barely knows
And dine with her Laptop
Blogging her woes.

Joan’s daily routine,
Will be a varied one.
Liban’s will be as simple,
As that of the sun.

Tomas will establish
A military coup,
Oh how cultural influence
Effects what we do!

Oh the contradictions,
Do they not astound you, friend?
To see how people strife,
From beginning to end?

I replied if you’re right.
I hope they’re prepared.
To remember this room.
They so equally shared.

Poem by: Linda Allison