Zilka Joseph: “I write poetry when the rhythm and music of words play in my brain, and I hear nothing but those voices, and my thoughts grow louder and drown out everything else. I run for pen and paper and the lines rush out, falling over each other as they flow. It is a deep and essential craving, a story that has to be written, any time of day or night.” (web)
Zilka Joseph: “My home was Kolkata, India. I grew up there, was educated there, taught there, and got married there. Years later, I moved to the U.S. with my husband, and struggled with all the things that new immigrants (of color, especially) go through. I would return home to see my parents, to help them as they got older and frailer. But I have not visited that city since my mother passed. Entire worlds seem lost to me, and yet they are all present in some dimension as they are inextricably entangled with the present. Sometimes it seems that I have lived several lives all at once and memories of these many lives (in India and in the U.S.) overlay and play with each other. Parents, friends, relatives, students have come and gone, and I grapple with the emptiness that is left behind. I especially mourn the loss of my beloved parents, my city, and in some of my poetry, I try to bring what’s lost back to life.” (web)
