Niche

I sing for joy:

Your whole body is composed of nesting places
Your whole body is composed of nesting places
Your whole body is composed of nesting places
Your whole body is composed of nesting places
Your whole body is composed of nesting places
Your whole body is composed of nesting places
Your whole body is composed of nesting places
Your whole body is composed of nesting places
Keep me under the shadow of your wings
Keep me under the shadow of your wings
Keep me under the shadow of your wings
Keep me under the shadow of your wings
Keep me under the shadow of your wings
Keep me under the shadow of your wings

Anthony Vahni Capildeo is a queer Trinidadian Scottish poet. They are the author of several poetry collections, including Polkadot Wounds (Carcanet, 2024).

About Anthony Vahni Capildeo

Themes

About this Poem

“The technique of erasure is often used to let light or air into a poem. Erasure can create blanks, riddles, or drifts. However, I wanted to do something different with ‘Niche.’ Page as featherbed. Page as clay. Luxurious screen that you can sink into. Body as columbarium. Body as cliff harboring birds. This is a loving poem wherein erasure and repetition, and the visual form, invite us to contemplate the warmth, solidity, pliability, and repose of the body. I’m thinking of San Juan de la Cruz here and lullabies.”
—Anthony Vahni Capildeo

Poems

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Niche

How to Love

Stellar Body

Agitated Air [by one bird late chanting]

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