Your body is my prison, Krishna,
I cannot see beyond it.
Your darkness blinds me,
Your love words shut out the wise world's din.
               ––From Only the Soul Knows How to Sing

A glaring example of classical love poetry, it is devotional in form and content. It is a poem of Krishnaprem and Krishnabhakti. The message is, I am but in love. Where do you search Me? I am by you, by you.

Your body is my prison, how to do the self-talk without the body, as the heart is in the body where dwells the Lord-God, is it not? You are my Love, the Love of the Heart. You are Shyam, Ghanshyam.

Kamala Das as it her style often takes to the tale of Krishna told in her own way and that is which quite expressive of her confessional slant, autobiographical vein, feministic tenor as ever beyond any dispute which even the village elders and patriarchs cannot confute and contradict. She continues to reckon with and lash too in her personal and private way. If she loves Krishna, it is her matter and if she not, that too is her way of viewing. The body is the centre of all, and the manna is in it and all of that depends on the way you take to it, the way you find it.

Your body is my prison, how the perception of her, how the thesis and the anti-thesis given by her! The prison cell of Vasudeva and Devaki not, the night of Janmashtami not, but the love-lore of Krishna is luring. 

Her personal tirades against her husband are also as usual in her poetical pieces. She tries to personalize her feelings as well as it is a specific quality of her poetry.

How to cut the mythic ice? How to unfold the mysteries? How the re-telling to be told? How to tell the tale of Krishna? How the saga of love? What is it love? How the feelings and sentiments of it? Can love be psychic only or, is it bodily? The body is the centre of it all or the heart is, what is it?

But what can a Radha hope for? Just for her lord, is the truth and so does Kamala want it. But we are not sure of whether it is psychic or physical.

Your darkness blinds, the other line brings in the colour perception, how the complexion of Krishna is, blue or black? If it is blue, it will be surely somewhat dark and vice versa. A picture of Shyam, Ghanshyam hangs in before, when it gets dark and desolate, when care and worry take over, clouds loom around, and it darkens for an outburst.

Your love words shut out the wise world's din, the line hints towards how enchanting is it magnetic, magical love and its charm! In love one forgets it all. Love is blind. Love is the melting point of all. Love is beyond explanation. What is in manna it cannot be shared in public, what is in it heart. Try to be a prem-pujari, a worshipper of love and she is but a prem-pujaran, a priestess of love.

The world cannot understand what love is, how the feeling of it. Love is not love if felt it not internally. Love is a matter of the heart. Those who love can really feel it. Try to love than say you. First, try to love Krishna and then say to.