Bodies of Water – A Poetry Film and Poem by Dr. Tulika Jha

BODIES OF WATER – The Film

BODIES OF WATER – The Poem

She said water is what we are
When pointing to the screen
A flickering heartbeat swimming in your womb
A new life seen

Or the way rivers envelope the ashes
Of a life once lived
Shimmering and shadowing on tiny waves
Now you see, now you don’t
Doesn’t mean they didn’t exist

It shows itself shapeshifting
in puddles, lakes, rivers
making size of the container immaterial
Care is a cycle that contains
Giving and receiving like vapour and rain

Try to bind it against its wish
It will run free cutting through rocks
from locked wards and prison probations

Like thirsty ghosts we sit in the waiting room
Water water everywhere but not a drop to drink
Have we tried to collect our droplets
Make an ocean to wash all our hearts full of need

Dr Tulika Jha is a psychiatrist and an activist combining health and social justice principles to disrupt and build care that is reciprocal and collective beyond expert and patient boundaries. After 25 years of experience in the NHS, she is taking time away to focus on organizing and collaborating care in a way that is not at the expense of the caregivers, is led by care receivers and is aligned with larger socio-political landscapes and alternative epistemologies This involves both written and spoken poetry and prose because she believes that creativity is a strong agent for change. She has written and spoken for British Bilingual PoetryCollective2022, Mad Hearts annual conference by QUMUL 2021, Compassion for Health Care 2022 and her poem, MAD,BAD,SAD: 3 phases of Activism was published in the psychoanalytic book –Burden of Heritage by Dr. Alleyne Alleyne, (Karnac Press 2022). Twitter: @tulikawriting IG : @tulikajha.

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