http://www.amazon.com/Leaf-His...ed+Poems+Mahadai+Das

Poet, Mahadai Das dies

Orin Fraser
April 5, 2003

Mahadai Das a gifted Guyanese poet died in Barbados shortly before midnight on Thursday, April 3, 2003. Ms. Das had gone into cardiac arrest 10 days earlier and, despite a battle to the end, eventually lost her struggle.

A former Guyana beauty queen, Ms. Das was educated at the University of Guyana and the University of the West Indies. She also earned a B.A. in Philosophy from Columbia University in New York, and an M.A. in Philosophy from the University of Chicago.

Her last book of poetry, Bones, was published by Peepal Press of London in 1988. It is available from Marginal Distribution, 277 George Street, North, Unit 102, Peterborough, ON, K9J 3G9 - Canada: marginal@marginalbook.com; phone (705) 745-2326.

Ms. Das was active in trying to find a nonracial solution to Guyana's social and political problems. A member of the Working People's Alliance, Ms. Das was influenced by the late Guyanese scholar and author, Walter Rodney.

Her poetry gave voice to the voiceless women of the South East Asian diaspora, long before that movement was in vogue. She was mentored by Rajkumari Singh, and worked to elevate the status of Indo-Carribean heritage at home and abroad. Her early work appeared in Kyk-over-Al, Guyana's official literary magazine, edited for years by AJ Seymour and Ian McDonald. Briefly in the mid-1980s she wrote for the Indo-Caribbean News (later the Inter-Caribbean News), a monthly published in Toronto, Canada, by Mark Maharaj.

Known as "Millie" or "Sister Millie" to family, from her Guyanese "home name," Millicent, Ms. Das at an early age undertook the care and rearing of her younger siblings following her mother's death. She had a passion for people, ideas and books.

Funeral arrangements are pending.

http://www.landofsixpeoples.com/news301/ns3040511.htm

Mahadai Das [1954-2003]

IGH, thanks for starting this thread.

Indeed, Mahadai Das had both beauty and brain. She was a serious, conscientious and profound poet.

I consider myself privileged to have been an acquaintance of hers, thanks to an introduction by our mutual friend Rooplall Monar.

With your permission, IGH, I am pleased to post one of her poems here:

While the Sun is Trapped

While the sun is trapped
in clouds of heaven, tiny guerilla lights
border the moon.
Hardship bends the back of the wind.
Loneliness carves a philosophical man
celebrating his despair. The air
is cruelly shot with the tyrant's glee.
But the day to come crouches, holding
his long spear in the night.
Ah, they hold to prey the man
and his starving child.
Like the bullfrog who croaks, they
bare their teeth and prepare for the slaughter.
While their fangs drip
with the blood of priests and the aborted
day, while yet the lords
of the fallen leaves lie yellow
in their coming and moist rot, while
those with paunches and contented belches polish

their cars,
the vengeance of heaven waits around
in the shadows.
The sun comes up in a coup
for the golden day.

Gilbakka, I did not have the privilege to met her... but her friend, Orin Fraser, told me so much of her ...

Mahadia, RIP.