IMTIAZ DHARKER:A while ago, the ceiling of my house in Bombay fell down and to me it didn't look like a bad thing. It looks as if that ceiling and those walls needed to come down as if the room was trying to tell me something. So afterwards I gave away everything that I owned in the room. Tables, chairs, clothes
IMTIAZ DHARKER:and what I was left with was this poem. This Room. "This room is breaking out, of itself, cracking through its own walls in search of space, light, empty air. The bed is lifting out of its nightmares from dark corners, chairs are rising up to crash through clouds. This is the time and place to be alive:
IMTIAZ DHARKER:when the daily furniture of our lives stirs, when the improbable arrives. Pots and pans bang together in celebration, clang past the crowd of garlic, onions, spices, fly by the ceiling fan. No one is looking for the door. In all this excitement I'm wondering where I've left my feet,
IMTIAZ DHARKER:and why my hands are outside, clapping."
Imtiaz Dharker performs and describes her poem This Room.
She discusses how she was inspired to write the poem after part of her house in Mumbai collapsed, and how she viewed it not as a tragedy, but an opportunity to discard some of the clutter of life and embrace empty space.
This is from the series Contains Strong Language.
Teacher Notes
Pupils could create a chart of themes they think the poem covers, and how Imtiaz鈥 use of language and pace supports or enables this.
As a vocal exercise, pupils could look at whether the meaning of the poem changes from being read on the page to being read aloud.
Does anything else jump out at them which they hadn't previously noticed?
Curriculum Notes
This topic is relevant for teaching English Literature at KS4 & GCSE/National 4 & 5.
More from the series: Contains Strong Language
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