Abstract

This paper explores a trilogy of poetic ethnographies: Stone, Sea, and Soul, Ferries That No Longer Run, and Barefoot Theory. Each work listens across landscapes shaped by war, displacement, and devotional memory. In these trilogies rather than tracing events in linear form, the trilogy moves through recurring motifs and regional rhythms, inviting the reader to dwell in silence, breath, and soil. Drawing from Indian literary traditions including Bhakti poetry, classical Tamil poetics, and the theories of rasa, dhvani, and tinai, the texts enact a lyrical method where walking becomes a form of attention and terrain becomes a living interlocutor. The Malarikkal cycle in Barefoot Theory offers a distinct spiral of embodied movement, carrying memory through barefoot paths and water lily fields. These poetic cycles do n seek resolution. They seek presence. Through repetition, listening, and vernacular devotion, the trilogy offers a way of knowing that is tactile, ethical, and alive.