Undergloom

by Prageeta Sharma

Taking its title from the descent into Hell in the opening passage of Homer’s Iliad—“and crowded brave souls into the undergloom”—Prageeta Sharma's fourth collection chronicles personal and internal wars using the American frontier as a central metaphor to address questions of community and belonging, outsiderness, and the inevitability of a racialized self. From "Will You Let Go For Ransom?": NO. And so deep was the fall, what a drop; I had nicks on my knuckles. There is a passage of time for all of it to hold you, then you hold it,
you wring it by its neck,
it’s murderous and invisible—a darkling spot that grips. And on some days, we would head to the bar—in the middle of the river,
the wail or the cries there found us. Some colleagues had tears down each eye.
Some other colleagues made them cry. We tried handing them words, but it all became inaccurate fast.
I held my purse in my fist. Not sure if this was a place I could get mugged,
But I was reminded that it wasn’t. I was still unsure. The first-generation child of a South Asian immigrant family and a native of Framingham, Massachusetts, Prageeta Sharma is the author of Bliss to Fill , The Opening Question (selected by Peter Gizzi for the 2004 Fence Modern Poets Prize), and Infamous Landscapes . She is also the recipient of the 2010 Howard Foundation Grant. Sharma is associate professor and director of the creative writing program at the University of Montana.

Genres: Poetry

88 pages, Paperback

First published June 11, 2013

About the author

Poet Prageeta Sharma was born in Framingham, Massachusetts. Her parents emigrated from India in 1969, and Sharma was raised a Hindu. She has acknowledged the influence of her parents’ religion on her poetry: “I was taught to honor knowledge and books like a religion and so for me poetry keeps this relationship close, true, active,” she told the journal Willow Springs.

Sharma attended Simon’s Rock College of Bard as an undergraduate and earned her MFA from Brown University and an MA in media studies from The New School.

Her collections of poetry include Bliss to Fill (2000), The Opening Question (2004), which won the Fence Modern Poets Prize, Infamous Landscapes (2007), and Undergloom (2013). Sharma has spoken of her work in terms of thought rather than narrative. In Willow Springs, she noted, “It’s important to explore a variety of cognitive experiences in the poem rather than just telling a story.”

Sharma’s honors and awards include a Howard Foundation Grant. She has taught at the New School and Goddard College and is currently an associate professor in the MFA program in creative writing at the University of Montana-Missoula, which she has also served as director.

Reviews

[Bryony Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

"because I think I'm a strobe not a star, should I be a better / force of light"

[Ash Ponders · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best book I should have read last year.

[hh · Rating 4 out of 5]

i like the strong breeze that blows through these poems, how they gust.