In this episode, acclaimed actor Prasanna Puwanarajah talks about the poem that has been a friend to him – 'Seachange' by Kate Genevieve.

Prasanna Puwanarajah is an English actor, director, writer and former junior medical doctor. He is known for Ten Percent, The Listeners, The Crown and many other credits on stage and screen. Prasanna recently wrapped on Ballywalter, his feature directorial debut, written by Stacey Gregg and produced by Empire Street Productions. He and Jed Mercurio are developing the drama series Breathtaking for ITV.

Prasanna's debut play Nightwatchman premiered at the National Theatre in 2011. He directed Moth at the HighTide Festival, and at the Bush Theatre, where it was a TimeOut Critics' Choice in the summer of 2013.  In 2019 he directed Venice Preserved at the Royal Shakespeare Company. His production of The Reluctant Fundamentalist was nominated for The Carol Tambor Award and the Amnesty International Freedom of Expressions Award at the 2018 Edinburgh Fringe.

Thank you to Kate Genevieve for giving us permission to share her poem. Find out more about Kate and her work here: www.kategenevieve.com

Prasanna Puwanarajah is in converastion with The Poetry Exchange hosts, Fiona Bennett and Michael Shaeffer.

*****

Seachange

by Kate Genevieve

For LP

Perhaps we are riding the moon’s path

Along the sea edge

Where things are less clear

And more alive?

My heart as full as the sea

Follows the shore line with certainty.

For here is a path drawn by desire.

A route touched by your darkness,

And mine.

Moon-struck.

Lit up by her generosity,

Touched by the light of strangers

Together with the old smile of wrinkled mountains

And all the living beings multiplying.

Something special grows in the emptiness -

Not innocence returned -

But wholeness,

Gold-seamed.

this night

This Day

On which so many doors fall open.

Let go!

The ocean ever rushes in to fill space revealed

With unforced irrepressible energy.

We can no more control a life's story

Than we can command the animals

Or hold back the tides

Or ordain the fated meetings of the world.

The door only opens at the right time.

Instead, receive the gifts of sea-change:

Take the moon-lit path along the shore

And meet what's fresh returning.

At one with Earth's desires

Awake to everything that's growing.

The mountain smiles.

She knows

It is more than time alone

Heals shattered pieces:

It is the gift of other beings.

For suffering dissolves

into the fullness of night,

With the memory that the dark bright night

Shines with love.

May all have eyes to see, ears to hear,

This night -

As full as the sea -

Beyond sense and naming.

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