On authors, critics and readers

On authors, critics and readers

 

Some leave behind a hard-won name

         Others only fame

A few the sweat and tears of their passage

        Snatched from the rigours of their age

 

Yet none the folly of the game

 

Fiction is licensed perjury

       The coward’s excuse for character           

Courage revelation originality veracity

        All conspire to make for a writer

                            

All mirrors distort

       Reviewers like haïr-dressers retort

And mistake the fall of water for the harp

       A mere critic can only carp

 

        If what you see is repugnant

close your ever envious eyes

and you’ll even see in darkness

        and the reason for your blindness

 

 

© T. Wignesan, Paris – 2006. Pub. in T. Wignesan. Rama and Ravana at the Altar of Hanuman : on Tamils, Tamil Literature and Tamil Culture. Chennai: Institute of Asian Studies, 2006 & Allahabad : Cyberwit.net, 2008.