Varsha Saraiya-Shah
Author of “VOICES,” a poetry collection by Finishing Line Press, Varsha’s work appears in journals such as Borderlands, Cha, Convergence, Mutabilis Press, Orchard Street Press, Penguin Random House, Pippa Ran UK, Synkroniciti, Soundings East, Unbroken Journal. Her work has featured on Public Radio, on international panels, Austin’s Jazz-Poetry performance event, and a multi-language/century dance program: “Poetry in Motion” in Houston, TX. She has been a featured poet at Houston’s First Friday Reading series, Words & Art forum, Women in Visual & Literary Arts (WIVLA), Archway Gallery, etc. She won first-places for her poem and essay in Gujarati, her native tongue, sharing a stage with two renowned Urdu/Gujarati ghazal poets in Dallas, TX. Retired from a finance/accounting career as a Texas CPA with an MBA from Cal-Poly Univ.(Pomona, California), poetry allows her to practice the art of living in our beautiful world while expressing her inner world
(published in Unknotting The Line: Poetry in Prose – Dos Gatos Press – Anthology of Poetry of the Southwestern United States, 2023)
Slow Dancing with Rio Nambé
On the High Road to Taos we hear waters roar, shaping and reshaping their foam beds. Fluorescent sheets of Rio Nambé coiled in the folds of ravines. Bales of clouds are swing dancers shuffling back and forth over the cliffs. Sweeping blue rooms above, in the day’s remnant sun an assurance of our aliveness. One fork to the next, ponderosas still visible for hikers rushing to trailhead. Hills ritually slip into purple gowns. We continue trekking soaked in their commanding performance. Nothing but sturdy, fearless limbs abound. Their eros absorbed in braiding what’s mutable, waters’ snowy plaits reweaving, mirth-making. We pause for nothing. Ponderosas in rows and columns guard them. We say nothing. Time stands timeless. We watch without a whisper when a thunder lands. Light body surrendering into ranges of Sangréde Cristo. In its domain, nothing may last but the pebbles, the brooks, inky stars at the back of the endless stage, sleepy dust, desert blossoms, pine needles, cacti, fire, the slow dance of an earth.
Slow Dancing with Rio Nambé
On the High Road to Taos we hear waters roar, shaping and reshaping their foam beds. Fluorescent sheets of Rio Nambé coiled in the folds of ravines. Bales of clouds are swing dancers shuffling back and forth over the cliffs. Sweeping blue rooms above, in the day’s remnant sun an assurance of our aliveness. One fork to the next, ponderosas still visible for hikers rushing to trailhead. Hills ritually slip into purple gowns. We continue trekking soaked in their commanding performance. Nothing but sturdy, fearless limbs abound. Their eros absorbed in braiding what’s mutable, waters’ snowy plaits reweaving, mirth-making. We pause for nothing. Ponderosas in rows and columns guard them. We say nothing. Time stands timeless. We watch without a whisper when a thunder lands. Light body surrendering into ranges of Sangréde Cristo. In its domain, nothing may last but the pebbles, the brooks, inky stars at the back of the endless stage, sleepy dust, desert blossoms, pine needles, cacti, fire, the slow dance of an earth.
Poems
https://synkroniciti.com/belonging-featured-artist-varsha-saraiya-shah/
(Poem: Many Truths of Color Red)
https://www.theunjournals.com/unbroken44
(Poem: The Dead Are Life’s Self-appointed Preachers
Museo Las Momias, Guanajuato)
https://www.ekphrastic.net/the-ekphrastic-challenges/ekphrastic-writing-responses-kizito-maria-kasule
(Poem: Indra’s Rainbow)
https://synkroniciti.com/belonging-featured-artist-varsha-saraiya-shah/
(Poem: Many Truths of Color Red)
https://www.theunjournals.com/unbroken44
(Poem: The Dead Are Life’s Self-appointed Preachers
Museo Las Momias, Guanajuato)
https://www.ekphrastic.net/the-ekphrastic-challenges/ekphrastic-writing-responses-kizito-maria-kasule
(Poem: Indra’s Rainbow)
Interviews
https://cindyhuyser.wordpress.com/2016/09/02/a-virtual-interview-with-varsha-saraiya-shah/
Panel Conversations including readings
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xsxSIHSUX4
ISOBreak#18: Emerging Writers Showcase -moderated by Tim Tomlinson of NYC Writers' workshop and sponsored by Griffith University in Australia; broadcast live with poets from Australia, India, and US. My reading begins at ~38 min. (5 poems) into the program and also the panel discussion continues in the last half hour, toward the end.
https://cindyhuyser.wordpress.com/2016/09/02/a-virtual-interview-with-varsha-saraiya-shah/
Panel Conversations including readings
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xsxSIHSUX4
ISOBreak#18: Emerging Writers Showcase -moderated by Tim Tomlinson of NYC Writers' workshop and sponsored by Griffith University in Australia; broadcast live with poets from Australia, India, and US. My reading begins at ~38 min. (5 poems) into the program and also the panel discussion continues in the last half hour, toward the end.
Other Links
Isobreak
Emerging Writers Showcase
Public Radio broadcast:
https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/arts-culture/literature/2017/04/24/219181/houston-poet-varsha-saraiya-shah/
(For A Man with One Earring)
Review of Pramila V's Book: The Singer of Alleppey in Enchanted Verses:
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.verseville.org/book-review-the-singer-of-alleppey-by-pramila-venkateswaran.html%23:~:text%3DReview%2520by%2520Varsha%2520Saraiya%252DShah,compositions%2520she%2520knew%2520very%2520little.&ved=2ahUKEwjRt9XD8JKLAxWd4jgGHZN5ODQQFnoECBcQAw&usg=AOvVaw1Qyy-i8jTI-s3a3WVzOdlk
Isobreak
Emerging Writers Showcase
Public Radio broadcast:
https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/arts-culture/literature/2017/04/24/219181/houston-poet-varsha-saraiya-shah/
(For A Man with One Earring)
Review of Pramila V's Book: The Singer of Alleppey in Enchanted Verses:
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.verseville.org/book-review-the-singer-of-alleppey-by-pramila-venkateswaran.html%23:~:text%3DReview%2520by%2520Varsha%2520Saraiya%252DShah,compositions%2520she%2520knew%2520very%2520little.&ved=2ahUKEwjRt9XD8JKLAxWd4jgGHZN5ODQQFnoECBcQAw&usg=AOvVaw1Qyy-i8jTI-s3a3WVzOdlk