Blessing

Blessing By Imtiaz Dharkar

Imtiaz Dharkar is the writer of the poem “blessing”. She was born in 1954 to a Muslim family in Lahore, Pakistan. She grew up in Glasgow where she studied Literature and Philosophy. She now lives in Bombay, India where she works as a poet, artist and film-maker.
“Blessing” is a four stanza poem. In this poem the poet tells us that the village is suffering from various problems because of poverty and because they are living a bad area.
She speaks about how god will provide them if they are lucky enough. They wait for a chance to get water but they are afraid also because they fear to get ill with the dirty area that they are living in. Its also showing that the people are imagining that something great shall happen and everything will be better for them to live a clean and better life.
The third stanza is describing a momentous event in the village. The bursting of a municipal pipe is a fortuitous occasion: it is described by the metaphor 'the sudden rush/of fortune'. Fortune of course has connotations of large sums of money as well as good luck, so the water that spills has tremendous value. There are many sounds that add more meaning to the poem
Men, women and children from the surrounding area are eager for their share of the spilled water and come with any container they can lay their hands. The stanza concludes with the phrase 'frantic hands', which once again emphasizes the desperation that leads the villagers to scoop even handfuls of water.
Dharker uses enjambment to link the third stanza to the fourth and final one. This focuses on the village children, on sound and bright light. The children, naked, are delighting in the chance to bathe in the water, 'screaming in the liquid sun'. This aligns the water to the sun and it emphasizes the pleasure and warmth of the experience.
The word 'blessing' continues the religious thread running through the poem. The final line again flows from the previous one: '... sings/over their small bones'. It is a gentle ending, focusing on the children of the village who are in such need of this water provided by accident.
'Blessing' is a wonderfully descriptive poem, using imagery to depict sight and sounds and create an atmosphere of panicky joy for an everyday resource that is usually so elusive in this particular setting.

Evita Mendonca
Roll no. 23