The Meanest Flower – Mimi Khalvati

·         There are a lot of notes on individual poems at the back of the book. Did you look at these whilst you were reading the poems or afterwards? Do you think you needed these notes? Did they detract from your enjoyment of the book in any way?

·         Khalvati is obviously skilled at writing in traditional forms – using forms like ghazal, sonnet, sestina etc. Were there any cases where you felt that the form was a distraction from the subject matter of the poem? Or did you think that there was a good balance?

·         The title poem “The Meanest Flower” seems to be primarily about aging and the way the mind yearns to revisit childhood and is written using the metaphor of flowers – do you think that this works?

·         There are a large number of ghazals (pronounced guzzle!) in the collection – did you understand this form and why the author used it? Did you like/dislike it?

·         The theme of this book is flowers – do you think the author has approached this subject matter in a fresh way? Are the flower poems successful?

·         Are there any poems that you liked more/less than others? Why?

·         There are a lot of references to literature and authors in the collection (eg Shylock, Shelley, La boheme, Lorca etc) – does this add to/detract from the quality of the work? Is she trying to be too clever?

·         What do you think of Kalvati’s use of repetition and rhyme?

·         The poem “The Mediterranean of the Mind” is written in memory of the poet Michael Donaghy – did you find the poem moving? Did you understand why the author has included quotes from Lorca? Do you think these quotes are adding anything important to the poem?

Look We Have Coming to Dover by Daljit Nagra

page numbers refer to the Faber paperback edition.

1)      What did you think about the collection? Did you enjoy it? If not why not?

2)      Nagra has said that he was very aware of writing in “false” voices when he wrote this collection – in particular in voices of people who in reality would not be able to speak English, or who’s English would be very poor, instead of trying to translate them directly he has tried to capture the spirit of what they might say – how do you think this works? Is it convincing?

3)      Nagra has said that he tried to write the poem Singh Song (p51) as an Indian version of a British Music Hall song. Do you think he has achieved this?

4)      Nagra was born and raised in West London do you think he successfully portrays the problems of being brought up with two cultures?

5)      Bearing in mind that he was born in Britain is it problematical that he is writing in the voices of those born in India? Does he do this successfully? If not why not?

6)      Some of the poems (for example Kabba Questions the Ontology of Representation… (p42) and The Furtherance of Mr Bulram’s Education (p36) are laid out in quite unusual ways. Did you understand why they were laid out in this way? Did the form add or detract from the content of the poems?

7)      What do you think of the way that Nagra uses language in the poems?

8)      Does Nagra do anything to break down our stereotypical views of Indians in Britain or do his poems perpetuate them?

Karela  (p12) – also called bitter gourd or bitter melon is a tropical and sub-tropical vine grown in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean for its edible pod shaped fruit. It is one of the bitterest fruits known.

Ladoo or Laddu (p20) – is a sweet popular in South Asian countries.  It is often prepared for festivals and weddings.

Putney (p51) – in Punjabi this means wife.

Read a little of Daljit Nagra talking about the collection here: http://www.sheerpoetry.co.uk/gcse/daljit-nagra/singh-song