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ADVANCE LESSONS

by Mani Rao

When their tummies growl for prasad,
my kids sit up straight in bhajans,
clap in sync.

Their skies rain nouns
— Love! Truth! Justice! —
but my students use verbs.

Bypassing clenched fists, their
conscientious poems get published
in conscientious journals.

What bowing does not make humble—
What smiling does not make happy—
They fake now
what life makes later.

Photo by Rajyavardhan Singh on Unsplash

Mani Rao

Mani Rao is the author of twelve books and chapbooks of poetry including Love Me In A Hurry (Atta Galatta), Sing to Me (Recent Work), New & Selected Poems (Poetrywala) and Echolocation (Math Paper Press); three books in translation including Bhagavad Gita : God’s Song (HarperCollins 2023), Saundarya Lahari: Wave of Beauty (HarperCollins), and Kalidasa for the 21st Century Reader (Aleph Books); and an academic book, Living Mantra: Mantra, Deities and Visionary Experience (Cham Springer). Her poems and essays are in numerous journals and anthologies and she has participated in such festivals as Jaipur Literature Festival, Bangalore Literature Festival and New York PEN World Voices. She was a writing resident at the Iowa International Writing Program, Omi Ledig House, International Poetry Studies Institute Canberra. She lives in Bangalore or Puttaparthi.