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y separately published work icon Vishvarūpa selected work   poetry  
Issue Details: First known date: 2011... 2011 Vishvarūpa
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Michelle Cahill's poems are astonishingly rich and new, their feet so deeply planted in timeless myth. This book is a truly profound example of the power of poetry to absorb and transcend our merely secular selves, filling the reader with multiple delights. Our literature is immediately changed by Vishvarupa.' (Publication summary)

Notes

  • Completed 'with the assistance of a Professional Development Grant from the Copyright Agency Limited and a Poetry Mentorship awarded by the Australian Society of Authors in 2008'.
  • Dedication: for mum and dad
  • Epigraph: The tortoise can draw in his legs / The seer can draw in his senses / I call him illumined. - Bhagavad Gita. (translated by Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Parkville, Parkville - Carlton area, Melbourne - North, Melbourne, Victoria,: Five Islands Press , 2011 .
      image of person or book cover 3584987876877146053.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 94p.
      ISBN: 9780734042057 (pbk.)
    • Nedlands, Inner Perth, Perth, Western Australia,: UWA Publishing , 2019 .
      image of person or book cover 1982761994718670413.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 100 p.p.
      Note/s:
      • Published June 2019.

      ISBN: 9781760800352

Works about this Work

‘Myth Is Not Merely Decorative’ : Prithvi Varatharajan Interviews Michelle Cahill Prithvi Varatharajan (interviewer), 2018 single work interview
— Appears in: Cordite Poetry Review , 1 February no. 84 2018;

'The subject of my interview with Cahill is her second book of poems, Vishvarūpa, which is a highly unusual book by a contemporary Australian poet. In VishvarūpaCahill reanimates figures from ancient Hindu mythology. Cahill takes Hindu gods and goddesses and drops them into suburban Sydney, and into various Indian cities. The poet adopts the voices of Hindu gods in the first person, in poems such as ‘Pārvatī in Darlinghurst’ and ‘Laksmi Under Oath,’ and writes them into poems in the third (‘Hanuman,’ ‘Sita’). Vishvarūpa is an experimental rendering of myth that is well known, in its conventional form, to Hindus, but would be relatively unknown to the Australian or Western reader; it contains a comprehensive glossary for this reason. The book draws on the Mahābhārataand the Rāmāyaṇa – Hindu narrative epics – and philosophy and scriptures in the Vedas. Cahill’s own background is Christian, as she tells me, although her ancestors were Hindus before India was colonised. As such, Vishvarūpa is the poet’s attempt to reconnect to a Hindu tradition that is in fact part of her heritage. Cahill has Goan-Anglo-Indian – or Eurasian – ancestry, and cultural identity is a prominent theme in her work.' (From introduction)

Poetry that Draws on Vectors of Experience and Movement Tina Giannoukos , 2013 single work review
— Appears in: TEXT : Journal of Writing and Writing Courses , April vol. 17 no. 1 2013;

— Review of Vishvarūpa Michelle Cahill , 2011 selected work poetry
From Silence to Rhetoric Michelle Cahill , 2012 single work criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 12 no. 2 2012;
Like the world itself, the textual encounter contains infinite possibilities. But how does language capture the undisclosed? This question is internalised in the process of writing but it is also fundamental to the spiritual quest. My detours as a writer, from silence to rhetoric, constitute a journey that is difficult to name, but which is triggered by discontents of one or another cause, displacing me towards different ways of seeing. The poems in my recent book Vishvarūpa permit me to explore a Hindu culture and heritage lost through the vicissitudes of colonial history. I made several journeys to India to research these poems. But what pitfalls does the poet face as ethnographer? How can myth and memory reconstruct a postcolonial identity?
Untitled Charles Manis , 2012 single work review
— Appears in: Transnational Literature , November vol. 5 no. 1 2012;

— Review of Vishvarūpa Michelle Cahill , 2011 selected work poetry
Australian Poetry 2011-2012 Judith Beveridge , 2012 single work review
— Appears in: Westerly , July vol. 57 no. 1 2012; (p. 30-46)

— Review of Amphora Joanne Burns , 2011 selected work poetry ; Edge Music Stuart Cooke , 2011 selected work poetry ; Linen Tough as History Julie Chevalier , 2012 selected work poetry ; Error Elizabeth Campbell , 2011 selected work poetry ; Night Birds Michelle Cahill , 2010 single work poetry ; Vishvarūpa Michelle Cahill , 2011 selected work poetry ; The Brokenness Sonnets I-III and Other Poems Mal McKimmie , 2011 selected work poetry ; Outside David McCooey , 2011 selected work poetry ; The Welfare of My Enemy Anthony Lawrence , 2011 single work poetry ; This Woman Adrienne Eberhard , 2011 selected work poetry ; Electricity For Beginners Michelle Dicinoski , 2011 selected work poetry ; Interferon Psalms : 33 Psalms on the 99 Names of God Luke Davies , 2011 selected work poetry ; Keeping Carter M. A. Carter , 2012 selected work poetry ; The Keeper of Fish Alan Fish , 2011 selected work poetry ; A Sudden Sentence in the Air : Jazz Poems Geoff Page , 2011 selected work poetry ; Concrete Tuesday David Musgrave , 2011 selected work poetry ; The Bearded Chameleon Chris Mooney-Singh , 2011 selected work poetry ; Southern Barbarians John Mateer , 2009 selected work poetry ; The Yellow Gum's Conversion Simon West , 2011 selected work poetry ; Four Refrains John Watson , 2011 selected work poetry ; Surface to Air Jaya Savige , 2011 selected work poetry ; Knuckled Fiona Wright , 2011 selected work poetry
Rich, Complex Indian Heritage Geoff Page , 2011 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 5 November 2011; (p. 32)

— Review of Vishvarūpa Michelle Cahill , 2011 selected work poetry
Untitled Paul Sharrad , 2011 single work review
— Appears in: Mascara Literary Review , October no. 10 2011;

— Review of Vishvarūpa Michelle Cahill , 2011 selected work poetry
Heather Taylor Johnson Reviews Michelle Cahill Heather Taylor Johnson , 2012 single work review
— Appears in: Cordite Poetry Review , 1 February vol. 37 no. 0 2012;

— Review of Vishvarūpa Michelle Cahill , 2011 selected work poetry
Speech Music Mark Tredinnick , 2012 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , April no. 340 2012; (p. 57)

— Review of Vishvarūpa Michelle Cahill , 2011 selected work poetry
Australian Poetry 2011-2012 Judith Beveridge , 2012 single work review
— Appears in: Westerly , July vol. 57 no. 1 2012; (p. 30-46)

— Review of Amphora Joanne Burns , 2011 selected work poetry ; Edge Music Stuart Cooke , 2011 selected work poetry ; Linen Tough as History Julie Chevalier , 2012 selected work poetry ; Error Elizabeth Campbell , 2011 selected work poetry ; Night Birds Michelle Cahill , 2010 single work poetry ; Vishvarūpa Michelle Cahill , 2011 selected work poetry ; The Brokenness Sonnets I-III and Other Poems Mal McKimmie , 2011 selected work poetry ; Outside David McCooey , 2011 selected work poetry ; The Welfare of My Enemy Anthony Lawrence , 2011 single work poetry ; This Woman Adrienne Eberhard , 2011 selected work poetry ; Electricity For Beginners Michelle Dicinoski , 2011 selected work poetry ; Interferon Psalms : 33 Psalms on the 99 Names of God Luke Davies , 2011 selected work poetry ; Keeping Carter M. A. Carter , 2012 selected work poetry ; The Keeper of Fish Alan Fish , 2011 selected work poetry ; A Sudden Sentence in the Air : Jazz Poems Geoff Page , 2011 selected work poetry ; Concrete Tuesday David Musgrave , 2011 selected work poetry ; The Bearded Chameleon Chris Mooney-Singh , 2011 selected work poetry ; Southern Barbarians John Mateer , 2009 selected work poetry ; The Yellow Gum's Conversion Simon West , 2011 selected work poetry ; Four Refrains John Watson , 2011 selected work poetry ; Surface to Air Jaya Savige , 2011 selected work poetry ; Knuckled Fiona Wright , 2011 selected work poetry
From Silence to Rhetoric Michelle Cahill , 2012 single work criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 12 no. 2 2012;
Like the world itself, the textual encounter contains infinite possibilities. But how does language capture the undisclosed? This question is internalised in the process of writing but it is also fundamental to the spiritual quest. My detours as a writer, from silence to rhetoric, constitute a journey that is difficult to name, but which is triggered by discontents of one or another cause, displacing me towards different ways of seeing. The poems in my recent book Vishvarūpa permit me to explore a Hindu culture and heritage lost through the vicissitudes of colonial history. I made several journeys to India to research these poems. But what pitfalls does the poet face as ethnographer? How can myth and memory reconstruct a postcolonial identity?
‘Myth Is Not Merely Decorative’ : Prithvi Varatharajan Interviews Michelle Cahill Prithvi Varatharajan (interviewer), 2018 single work interview
— Appears in: Cordite Poetry Review , 1 February no. 84 2018;

'The subject of my interview with Cahill is her second book of poems, Vishvarūpa, which is a highly unusual book by a contemporary Australian poet. In VishvarūpaCahill reanimates figures from ancient Hindu mythology. Cahill takes Hindu gods and goddesses and drops them into suburban Sydney, and into various Indian cities. The poet adopts the voices of Hindu gods in the first person, in poems such as ‘Pārvatī in Darlinghurst’ and ‘Laksmi Under Oath,’ and writes them into poems in the third (‘Hanuman,’ ‘Sita’). Vishvarūpa is an experimental rendering of myth that is well known, in its conventional form, to Hindus, but would be relatively unknown to the Australian or Western reader; it contains a comprehensive glossary for this reason. The book draws on the Mahābhārataand the Rāmāyaṇa – Hindu narrative epics – and philosophy and scriptures in the Vedas. Cahill’s own background is Christian, as she tells me, although her ancestors were Hindus before India was colonised. As such, Vishvarūpa is the poet’s attempt to reconnect to a Hindu tradition that is in fact part of her heritage. Cahill has Goan-Anglo-Indian – or Eurasian – ancestry, and cultural identity is a prominent theme in her work.' (From introduction)

Last amended 19 Jul 2019 14:01:51
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