Bryan Thao Worra, Shikha Malaviya" />
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Alone in Babel, Arts & CultureJuly 8, 2014

Quarter-finals: India-Laos

PREAMBLE

In 2005, the Collins English Dictionary added (together with ‘chav’, ‘Asbo’ and ‘adultescent’) a neologism coined by noted wordsmith Sir Alex Ferguson: ‘squeaky-bum time’ was (and presumably still is) defined as ‘the tense final stages of a competition.’

With just four Poetry World Cup games remaining, we’re certainly into the tense final stages here. India and Laos go head to head today in perhaps the least predictable quarter-final: both countries have been impressive so far, but only one can make it through to the semis.

To ease the nerves, we’d like to offer up some extremely dubious lines of iambic tetrameter. Perhaps you’ll be able to spot the difference between the words we’ve stolen from Shakespeare and the words we’ve stolen from Sir Alex.

But soft, behold! Lo, where it comes!
‘Tis soon the time of squeaky bums.
So carpe diem! Strike now… You’re
About to lose to Singapore.

MEET THE POETS

India’s representative is Shikha Malaviya, the founder of The (Great) Indian Poetry Project. She also founded Monsoon Magazine, the first South Asian Literary Magazine on the web, and organised ‘100 Thousand Poets for Change — Bangalore’. Her first collection of poems, ‘Geography of Tongues’, was published in late 2013.

Bryan Thao Worra has previously represented Laos as a Cultural Olympian during the 2012 Poetry Parnassus, and was involved in the SatJaDham Lao Literary Project, promoting the work of Laotian and Hmong writers and artists. In addition to his poetry, he writes experimental fiction drawing on a variety of influences, including sci-fi and horror.

FORM GUIDE

Although both countries have pulled in plenty of votes, India had to come through two very close matches to reach this stage, finishing 8 votes ahead of Nigeria and just 5 ahead of Indonesia. Laos, on the other hand, have notched up two relatively comfortable wins, beating Lebanon by 37 votes and Iran by 56. Surely this one will be tighter?

                      Bryan Thao Worra

Like Any Good Indian

I turn my face    with acute awareness    not giving them    even an eyelash
I give my phone unwanted attention
scanning numbers    friends who don’t matter
I count down the traffic light    59-58-57 seconds    then feign sleep
knuckles wrap against tinted glass…

~ Shikha Malaviya

Read the full poem

Dreamonstration

Given a thousand nights,
Can you master even a single word?
Or a dream, a tool, a brain?

Open roads, discover ways,
Flow down a stream, slash at ignorance
With ink and a scrap of paper from a poet’s bag…

~ Bryan Thao Worra

Read the full poem

 

RESULT: Laos won by 131 votes

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One last love letter...

April 24, 2021

It has taken us some time and patience to come to this decision. TMS would not have seen the success that it did without our readers and the tireless team that ran the magazine for the better part of eight years.

But… all good things must come to an end, especially when we look at the ever-expanding art and literary landscape in Pakistan, the country of the magazine’s birth.

We are amazed and proud of what the next generation of creators are working with, the themes they are featuring, and their inclusivity in the diversity of voices they are publishing. When TMS began, this was the world we envisioned…

Though the magazine has closed and our submissions shuttered, this website will remain open for the foreseeable future as an archive of the great work we published and the astounding collection of diverse voices we were privileged to feature.

If, however, someone is interested in picking up the baton, please email Maryam Piracha, the editor, at maryamp@themissingslate.com.

Farewell, fam! It’s been quite a ride.

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Quarter-finals: Scotland-Pakistan

The third Poetry World Cup quarter-final.

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