‘C.P. Surendran bears witness to…what James Agee memorably described as “the cruel radiance of what is”. Anyone who looks directly at that “cruel radiance” is very likely to be wounded; for the poet is not only a pilgrim in a dangerous landscape but also a trespasser in secluded zones, psychic, cultural or political, that would prefer to guard their mysteries. As in Greek mythology, the guardian of such a sanctuary, usually a serpent or a dragon, inflicts a wound on the trespasser who has ...