Theme

Devotion

A vow that remains after feeling has been spent, and sometimes before it has been felt.

• Sena-period Bengal

  When He Dances Elsewhere

  Jayadeva sings Rādhā’s waiting while Krishna stays among the gopīs. In this poem the sacred and the erotic refuse to be sorted. Viraha is not a plot delay. It is the devotion.

• New Spain

  To Her Vicereine, and to Learning

  Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz wrote love sonnets, some toward the Countess of Paredes, and the letter Respuesta a Sor Filotea. Friendship, desire, convent, colonial gender. Not a sticker. Not a denial.

• Tibet, Sixth Dalai Lama

  The Songs Below the Palace

  Tsangyang Gyatso, the Sixth Dalai Lama, wrote songs of lovers and willow groves while holding a religious office. The tension is real. The later death is political and grim. It is not a lyric.