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It gives me great pleasure to unveil a beautiful collection of poetic works by our brilliant poets and contributors in our Poetry Special Edition of Learning and Creativity.
A sensuous, divine expression of romantic love, which is born out of a poetic collaboration between D. Russel Micnhimer and Nalini Priyadarshini.
Nature has always inspired me , and this poem was triggered as I rambled in the Bharatpur bird sanctuary , Rajasthan, inhaling the sights and sounds that the rich wilderness had to offer. The babblers, the snake birds, the Sarus cranes,the bulbuls, the parakeets ,the drongos and, the magpie robins- what a rich bonanza it had to offer!
The bountiful nature lies scattered all around us, we need to snatch a few moments from our harassed lives , and stand and stare at the wealth that nature brings to us. The squirrels foraging for food, the monkeys hurling themselves from trees,chattering away, the myriad birds , with their incredible flamboyance are indeed a sight for sore eyes , and a balm for drooping spirits. Whenever my spirits droop, I have only to dip into this treasure trove of memories, and lo and behold, my spirits are uplifted.
The Face Book group Poets/Artists Unplugged to which I belong puts up a prompt from time to time. Recently it put up a prompt-- 'Cry of a Book'. Being a lifelong lover of books and a pack rat with about a 7000 volume library, anything having to do with books immediately gets my attention. So I just started anthropomorphizing books and thinking of what might make them cry. I first addressed ones in my home, then ones still loose in the wild and those who meet worse fates than being in collections. Then I just let images and language kind of take me where they would to build the rest of the poem, concluding with how I wish I could solve the dilemma.
This poem was inspired by a NAPOWRIMO prompt in Rejected Stuff which is also its title. It is also an attempt to write a Dylanesque ballad, set in modern times. It deals objectively with two couples, a murder, adultery, love, marriage, faithfulness, cuckolding, betrayal, loyalty, exile and other themes in the form of an exciting story that resembles a fast paced thriller showing that life has changed and is now complex in its pyschological dimensions.
In this beautifully evocative poem, Dr. Sunil Sharma captures the true essence, beauty and universality of poetry, presenting a rich dedication to the art and rhetoric of poetry and to the poets who have tirelessly embraced this artistic form of expression and enriched humanity.
This is a collection of two poems, originally written in Nepali by celebrated poet Suman Pokhrel and translated in English by another literary great, Dr. Abhi Subedi. Both the poems depict the unflinching passion and the beautiful sense of pathos lurking in the lines.
This is a collection of two poems, originally written in Nepali by celebrated poet Suman Pokhrel and translated in English by another literary great, Dr. Abhi Subedi. Both the poems depict the unflinching passion and the beautiful sense of pathos lurking in the lines.
'Earthsick' is an attempt to find one's bearings in a large, bustling city Dubai where everyone goes unnoticed, their struggles remain anonymous and yet by being there in that point of time, they make up the city. A feeble protest against losing one's personal identity
while getting sucked into the anonymity of uprooted beings.
A love poem with classical elements/images from Greek mythology interspersed with the sensuous and sensual depiction of a woman’s body and persona, making this poem a luscious treat for the readers.
I wrote it for my daughter when she was seventeen. She was in her first year of University, reading English Literature, and talking to me about books, theory and writing. I told her about my feminist ‘icons’ Germaine Greer, Virginia Woolf and Alice Walker, to name a few, and she laughed and called me a femmonazi. The poem is a loving (I hope) encapsulation of our conversations in the kitchen and a time in our lives when she thought she was so grown-up and wise. Now she’s 30 and really wise :-)
The birth of a poem is an unconscious prosody of a wordsmith’s or poet's wonderland where his / her senses are stimulated. The poet’s self is rejuvenated with a profound, new ambience. In that divine moment, a poem sprouts, germinates, is born.
This poem was born out of my first few experiences in the ladies waiting room at hospitals. It is a practice in the middle east to have separate waiting rooms for women. The experience was a startling departure from my experiences in similar places in India. The women were very polite, they greeted everyone as they entered and left the room. But apart from that, I found no interaction- I was eager to strike up a conversation and learn more about their culture but I could never really get through. Yes, I did have a language barrier but I found that they hardly spoke with the others too. I noticed that the phones were in near silent mode and they sat their waiting (after they had met the doctor) for their male escort to call them to take them home.
All of these experiences find a place in the poem.
I wrote the poem, ‘miscarriage’, some twenty years after the loss of two babies in early pregnancy. The writing helped me understand why I felt under-supported on each occasion, and why my grief remained acute despite the time that had elapsed.
This poem is an attempt to reveal this shadow in my life. My hope is that it will resonate with other women who have experienced the silencing that too often accompanies the loss of a baby to miscarriage
This poem came to me quite spontaneously when I visited Kalimpong in November 2014. We were visiting a flower garden where we were greeted with a host of flowering North American cacti. They were being bred in an alien land. Images of a barren land, that people may have fought over, and the futility of it all just floated by me and I tried to capture them in my own modest way.
My father is a Doctor by profession, but a painter by passion. He has had 11 solo exhibition of paintings at the Academy of Fine arts, Kolkata and also several collaborated ones. This poem is dedicated to him, my hero, my idol, my faith, My BABA.
The poem was written from a childhood memory, when I used to watch him paint, I think I was about 10 years old at that time. Then one day I decided to ask him if I could paint too, that's when he said those lines in the poem. He has been an inspiration for me my entire life.
The poem is about a little girl named Nanceylla whom the narrator met in his sojourn to a hilly place. While the narrator was preparing to go out, the girl pleaded him to take her with him. They both went out and the narrator recalls how the girl on their way picked up little things like a cone of pine tree, etc; and how those little things filled her with wonder. The poem catches not only the beauty of innocence but also the wistful romantic idea of life. The tone of nostalgia found in the poem only enriches its simplicity. The description of natural beauty as emancipated in a serene environment thematically lends sublimity to the poem.
This poem is a dedication to the struggles of womanhood, and the social perceptions regarding the status of women in India.
Through the metaphor of a train journey, the author in this poem depicts the emotional odyssey of life itself in various different hues of revelations, temporal, spatial and universal.
In this poem, the poet depicts a sense of being in love, the kind of love which may not fill emptiness but certainly makes emptiness serene.
Having spent a decade of marital bliss, Aastha feels she can't help falling in love with her hubby again. Every little gesture of his still makes her heart skip a beat. She enjoys falling in love again and again with the man of her life. From being an amazing husband, Aastha feels her husband has made it to the mark of being the best father too. What more can a woman ask for? This is a poem dedicated to the love and interpersonal relationship between her husband and daughters.
The poem is a rumination about negative experiences and their aftereffects in our lives. Even after certain episodes in our lives blow over, their memories linger on for a lifetime and are perhaps more torturous than the actual incidents. The poem is a reflection of this dilemma regarding the impression left behind by the wounds and their scars.
A hopeful, intoxicating ballad encompassing a beautiful philosophy that we often disregard in our quest for tomorrow’s promises and their fulfilment: living and reveling in the many treasured gifts of today, the present moment.
'The Root' is one of my art pieces. We all have some hidden corners lying deep inside our hearts. Some of us are poor, some are rich, some live in the city, some belong close to the nature and so on. But we all are connected and are stitched in one single thread that leads us to one single path. Though we do not get to see each other on that path, yet we all share a vision. Sometimes we see it and sometimes the Vision sees us. This poem says a part of that vision and I will only be satisfied when you all will be able to visualize my vision-your visions-your roots.
I dedicate this poem to widows of all martyrs. Their agonizing sacrifice is respected and honored from the depths of my soul. This poem takes you through emotions of love and patriotism of a strong selfless widow.
