About the Book: Available Light: New and Collected Poems
'C.P. Surendran bears witness to…what James Agee memorably described as "the
cruel radiance of what is". Anyone who looks directly at that "cruel radiance"
is very likely to be wounded; for the poet is not only a pilgrim in a dangerous
landscape but also a trespasser in secluded zones, psychic, cultural or
political, that would prefer to guard their mysteries. As in Greek mythology,
the guardian of such a sanctuary, usually a serpent or a dragon, inflicts a
wound on the trespasser who has entered and violated the temenos. It is the
wound of unbearable knowledge.…It