Srikanth Reddy (2013)

Author's Statement

The most direct benefit of the NEA fellowship for my own practice as a writer will be the gift of time. The difficulty of clearing time and space for writing is, for me, the hardest part of making poems. I hope the NEA fellowship will allow me to clear some of that space and bring this new book to completion. But beyond the gift of time, it's also very validating and encouraging to know that people out there enjoyed the work-in-progress enough to provide it with material support. That's another big part of the benefit of the NEA fellowship--the encouragement to go on with what one is doing. 

Introduction to the Underworld

                                I.

During a recent leave of absence from the middle of my
life, I came across an inscription on a historical prism of
Assurbanipal that I found to be somewhat disquieting.  Of
an enemy whose remains he had abused in a manner
that does not bear repeating here, this most scholarly
of Mesopotamian kings pronounces

Prisms of this sort were often buried in the foundations of
government buildings and therefore intended to be read by
gods but not men.  Somewhere in the maze of carrels and
stacks I thought I could hear a low dial tone humming
without end.  In Assurbanipal's library there is a poem,
written on clay, that corrects various commonly held errors
regarding the world of the dead.  Contrary to the accounts
of Mu Lian, Odysseus, and Kwasi Benefo, et.al., it is not
customarily permitted to visit the underworld.  No, the
underworld visits you.

(used with permission from Omnidawn Books)

National Endowment for the Arts · an independent federal agency
1100 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20506