Joe Winter - Calcutta Poems

Calcutta Poems

Winter composed a number of poems during his Calcutta life which have been published under the title Guest and Host. According to the book cover, this group of poems "records the experience of being welcomed into the household of a foreign country". Many of the poems deal with the commonplace. The majority of the volume comprises two long poems. The first, a sonnet-sequence, "Guest and Host", from which the collection takes its title; and the other a poem on the 2001 earthquake in Kutch, "Earthquake at Kutch". "Guest and Host" is predominantly lyrical in style and diction; in "Highway 34" he writes as follows:

Sometimes when I walk where trees were tall
I am in a prisoner-of-war camp debating poetry
with Colonel-General Loblein. Hostilities were over
and I was in charge of the German Officers' 'hostel'
outside Jessore. As part of my duties
I re-interpreted the Geneva Convention on canteen rights.

"Earthquake at Kutch" is less lyrical:

Shadows of trees, branch-shadows, shadows of leaves
stray in the dust. Only the trees are standing.
Slight shapes chequer a quiet space of ground.