Sometimes when drifting into sleep
I tune to Radio Lhasa
Follow the sound of singing-bowls
Prayer-wheels wood-drum gongs then silence
‘Forget the past forget the future
Now forget the present’
Often there is Chinese interference
Malgudi’s Krishna-Radha Hour
Is luxury and bliss
For all whose sensualities
Aspire to spiritual raga
That sea of consciousness in which
Our cosmos is one island
As for Vatican T.V….
I’ve met most of its ‘stars’
When in Rome we share
The same Bel Canto barber of Campo d’ Fiori
Opera spills into the street
In fact you cannot avoid it
Once seated in his antique chair
He clipper-cuts and buffs remaining hair
Re-styles each eyebrow for the discotheque
So back to British T.V. –
Should I fall asleep with it on
Fierce arguments ensue in black and white
Even though transmission is in colour
‘I cannot understand the English mind’
Opines my local corner-shop Punjabi
‘Do not distress yourself’ I say
We are ‘Dandelion and Burdock’
Though most speak ‘Coca Cola’
Last night I tuned to ‘Copenhagen Jazz’
Beamed out from NUUK
I picked up all-American interference
.
Bernard Saint
Illustration: Claire Palmer
.