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open sky :: SAMVAAD |29th October

hosts : Sanjuktaa Asopa & Aparna Pathak


burl bark grown into a wound a word

- Mark Harris


(Frogpond 34.1)


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6 Comments


Aparna Pathak
Aparna Pathak
Nov 02, 2023

Some poems stay with you throughout life. This amazing one is surely one of them.

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lakshmi iyer
lakshmi iyer
Nov 02, 2023

Loved the poem for completing the circle from

'into a wound a word burl bark'

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sanjuktaa
Nov 02, 2023

Asked about "the story behind the making of the verse", Mark Harris says: it came out of an extended meditation on preconceptions about ability/disability, order/disorder, beauty/ugliness, perfection/imperfection, similarity/difference, and of course language-- a body of work mostly brought together in my book BURL.

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Amoolya Kamalnath
Oct 30, 2023

The burl (American English) or burr (British English) is a tree growth in which the grain has grown in a deformed manner. It is commonly found in the form of a rounded outgrowth on a tree trunk or branch that is filled with small knots from dormant buds. Burl formation is typically a result of some form of stress such as an injury or a viral or fungal infection.

(From Wikipedia)


One single word uttered by that one person growing into a wound over a period of time....just like this burl bark on which the grain has grown in a deformed manner due to some form of stress.


A befitting correlation!

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Amoolya Kamalnath
Oct 31, 2023
Replying to

Thank you 😊

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