Love is Just a Story

These are poems that have been created out of the material of love. Love is, in all ways, a force that destroys. And since in destruction, as the Tantra says, are the seeds of creation, therefore love also births, and profoundly so. Poems such as these must be read without reserve and with empathy. Dr. S. N. Dev (PhD, Oxon.) Arjun Choudhuri is a poet and translator. He lives in Assam in Northeast India, where he teaches English literature at Gurucharan College, Silchar, and is curator for both the Anuvad Festival For the Arts and Humanities (Assam's first indie arts/lit festival) and The Northeast India Company (an indie arts collective). He has published six previous books of poetry: In the House Next Door (2006, Writers Workshop, Kolkata), The River Roads (2009, Wordsmith, Kolkata), Bordering Poetry: An Anthology of Translated Poetry from Barak Valley (2010, Vyatikram, Guwahati), Ajobithi and Other Poems: Translations (2009, Utsa Prakashani, Dhaka), Metrophobia (2012, Aquarius Publishing, USA) and Rain Tree Deity (2014, Editions du Zaporogue, Aarhus). He lives with his mother and sister in his ancestral home, where he occasionally dabbles in digital art and street photography and avidly collects ritual texts and icons relating to the Mahayana/Vajrayana doctrines and the Hindu Tantras.