We have so far
molested the world
as a brothel;
now, let us treasure
it as an ashram.
molested the world
as a brothel;
now, let us treasure
it as an ashram.
Monday, April 13, 2020
Saturday, April 11, 2020
The show goes on
I want to be happy.
I focus on things, or on others,
Friends, strangers;
It entices me more,
Becomes my addiction,
My destiny.
Instead of being happy,
I become sad.
I exercise my freedom,
I feel cherished in
The so-called like-minded company,
In passionate love that leads into
Humdrum tolerance
Or in acquisitions, opulence
Blinded by material success
Perpetually scared to be with me,
I constantly yearn for togetherness.
My own friendship I underestimate
Seduced by others, submerged in things
I am subjugated,
I crave for them as my savior,
It kills me from inside, it devours;
The more I get, the more I want
The more I compare, the more I hate;
This germ of a game is forever reborn,
The curtain never falls, the show goes on.
I focus on things, or on others,
Friends, strangers;
It entices me more,
Becomes my addiction,
My destiny.
Instead of being happy,
I become sad.
I exercise my freedom,
I feel cherished in
The so-called like-minded company,
In passionate love that leads into
Humdrum tolerance
Or in acquisitions, opulence
Blinded by material success
Perpetually scared to be with me,
I constantly yearn for togetherness.
My own friendship I underestimate
Seduced by others, submerged in things
I am subjugated,
I crave for them as my savior,
It kills me from inside, it devours;
The more I get, the more I want
The more I compare, the more I hate;
This germ of a game is forever reborn,
The curtain never falls, the show goes on.
Friday, April 10, 2020
Lying for nothing
Look at the sky
Lying for nothing
Spinning the mind around.
Looking up is an intemperance
An indulgent impertinence;
The neglected, ignored ground
Lying for nothing.
Lying for nothing
Spinning the mind around.
Looking up is an intemperance
An indulgent impertinence;
The neglected, ignored ground
Lying for nothing.
The curtain-raiser
When the curtain falls
Actors are delivered
From their roles,
From a pack of lies;
They become free
From the cage,
But only temporarily;
For when the stage reopens
Before the audience
For the next performance,
The players become bound
Within their profound scripts,
Dialogues, actions of yesterday
Repeat in time and space.
Only a momentary wonderment
'Ah! If it were to change,
It has to', but in the end
Nothing is above entertainment.
Actors are delivered
From their roles,
From a pack of lies;
They become free
From the cage,
But only temporarily;
For when the stage reopens
Before the audience
For the next performance,
The players become bound
Within their profound scripts,
Dialogues, actions of yesterday
Repeat in time and space.
Only a momentary wonderment
'Ah! If it were to change,
It has to', but in the end
Nothing is above entertainment.
Thursday, April 9, 2020
Victory will belong to humanity
The world is standstill.
Human life is in sudden peril.
Deaths in thousands lie,
Shock our unprepared universe
No time to weep, no time to cry
For the countless, silent hearse.
No matter what, believe in your own faith,
In our unabated, united strength
That whatever be the calamity
Victory will belong to humanity.
Numerous martyrs of the war
Have sacrificed their lives for us
We bow to them and take a vow
That this too shall pass,
This too shall pass
Soon we will show us how
We could concur to conquer the virus.
No matter what, believe in your own faith,
In our unabated, united strength
That whatever be the calamity
Victory will belong to humanity.
This poem was selected as the top 50 by the WHD.
Here are the details:
Congratulations !
We are highly honored & excited in announcing that you have been selected as a “Winner” in the “COVID TIMES POETRY” contest. Your heart-rending poem has inspired a lot in these times of hardships and has given them hope of sunshine through humanity.
Requesting you to keep it this information to yourself until it is officially declared at the event.
Thank you for participation the competition and please kindly attend the live COVID TIMES POETRY Winners Ceremony on 22.04.2020 (London Time - 3 P.M. BST - GMT +1) which is graced by the presence of H.E. Anthony Carmona - The 5th President of Trinidad & Tobago, Abdul Basit Syed, The Founder of WHD & many more. Herewith attaching the agenda of the program and a promo poster as well. You can post it through social media and tag us.
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Also,
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Secretary-General - UK
World Humanitarian Drive
Sunday, April 5, 2020
Find us a cure
You, the supreme
Your outer-space intelligence,
Your wealthy arrogance,
Why are they useless
Now, to protect us
Against an invisible virus?
You will take months to prepare
A vaccination! Why can't you expedite
For your expeditions, you take lesser time
You supreme erudite! For within this tenure
The deadly creature will tonsure
The defenseless battlefield,
Where is your smartness now?
If you can, show us how
You can help at this hour of need.
All this while you have wasted our money
In outer space, invested in other
Things, as expensive as white elephants
But you cannot take care of our safety
Against a creature much smaller than ants?
Of all sentient beings,
The cream of the cream?
You have learned to fight
The cream of the cream?
You have learned to fight
In the dullest days, darkest nights.
Guns, weapons engaged to kill
Your own species with matchless skill.
Guns, weapons engaged to kill
Your own species with matchless skill.
Your outer-space intelligence,
Your wealthy arrogance,
Why are they useless
Now, to protect us
Against an invisible virus?
You will take months to prepare
A vaccination! Why can't you expedite
For your expeditions, you take lesser time
You supreme erudite! For within this tenure
The deadly creature will tonsure
The defenseless battlefield,
Where is your smartness now?
If you can, show us how
You can help at this hour of need.
All this while you have wasted our money
In outer space, invested in other
Things, as expensive as white elephants
But you cannot take care of our safety
Against a creature much smaller than ants?
Inside the oceans, you store
Countless weapons of disaster
Yet, at times of crisis such as this
There’s not enough equipment
No adequate infrastructure.
Look at the rejoicing nature
Dancing in fresh air
It has got some respite from us
Thanks to the deadly virus.
You are greedy, made small
Although you sound like big brothers.
Take this as a lesson please,
Do not fight with human beings;
Learn to fight real enemies
That spread pandemics such as these,
Do not waste public money anymore
Save us from dying, find us a cure.
Countless weapons of disaster
Yet, at times of crisis such as this
There’s not enough equipment
No adequate infrastructure.
Look at the rejoicing nature
Dancing in fresh air
It has got some respite from us
Thanks to the deadly virus.
You are greedy, made small
Although you sound like big brothers.
Take this as a lesson please,
Do not fight with human beings;
Learn to fight real enemies
That spread pandemics such as these,
Do not waste public money anymore
Save us from dying, find us a cure.
Thursday, April 2, 2020
Virus, an avatar of Vishnu?
This virus for me is
An avatar of Vishnu
It has come upon the stage
To teach us a lesson;
With a gentle jerk
He pulled the brake
Of the money-making mind
Driving, causing hazards, going berserk,
The mechanical car that polluted for ages,
Abused every being on earth.
Nature is saying times for a while,
It is at peace, experiencing bliss.
I heard a voice within me
Criticizing, cursing me bitterly
For this insanity.
'How horrid is this that you call
The deadly virus Vishnu?
Thousands dying in the pandemic,
And you? Writing your senseless lines, without a clue
Calling this a teaching?
As both start with the letter 'V'
You find a link? A disgusting similarity?
You call this virus an avatar of Vishnu
You must be a horribly possessed Hindu!
You should hide in shame
For playing such a thoughtless poetic game!'
I say this with a hand on my heart
If only I could also die in His craft,
The innocent lives are sacrificed
For nothing! You need eighteen months
To come up with a vaccine?
How weak is the Intelligence?
Why can't it be cracked in eighteen minutes?
How absurdly horrendous,
Isn't each dying moment precious?
If pigs are the reason for this,
First the swine flu
And then the virus,
Why do we have them at all
In our mouth-watering menu?
I imagined Vishnu smiling,
In my ears softly whispering,
'Go deep and look for the remedy
If pigs are the reason for this mayhem
The cure might also come from them,' I repeated,
The cure might also come from them.
With this, the Lord disappeared in my dream,
When will my wailing world
From this invisible viral germ be delivered?
I forgot to ask this to Him
My Vishnu, my shepherd.
An avatar of Vishnu
It has come upon the stage
To teach us a lesson;
With a gentle jerk
He pulled the brake
Of the money-making mind
Driving, causing hazards, going berserk,
The mechanical car that polluted for ages,
Abused every being on earth.
Nature is saying times for a while,
It is at peace, experiencing bliss.
I heard a voice within me
Criticizing, cursing me bitterly
For this insanity.
'How horrid is this that you call
The deadly virus Vishnu?
Thousands dying in the pandemic,
And you? Writing your senseless lines, without a clue
Calling this a teaching?
As both start with the letter 'V'
You find a link? A disgusting similarity?
You call this virus an avatar of Vishnu
You must be a horribly possessed Hindu!
You should hide in shame
For playing such a thoughtless poetic game!'
I say this with a hand on my heart
If only I could also die in His craft,
The innocent lives are sacrificed
For nothing! You need eighteen months
To come up with a vaccine?
How weak is the Intelligence?
Why can't it be cracked in eighteen minutes?
How absurdly horrendous,
Isn't each dying moment precious?
If pigs are the reason for this,
First the swine flu
And then the virus,
Why do we have them at all
In our mouth-watering menu?
I imagined Vishnu smiling,
In my ears softly whispering,
'Go deep and look for the remedy
If pigs are the reason for this mayhem
The cure might also come from them,' I repeated,
The cure might also come from them.
With this, the Lord disappeared in my dream,
When will my wailing world
From this invisible viral germ be delivered?
I forgot to ask this to Him
My Vishnu, my shepherd.
Saturday, March 28, 2020
Mapping the pandemic
 |
| Google images |
Busy streets of cities, numbed in
Deadly silence
No ruction, no turbulence;
As if the tireless time has stopped
All its physical engagements.
The imported monster, drinking slowly
The nectar of life, the poisonous virus
Getting stronger has transformed
The forever busy world, impotent.
The disobedient demon is invisible,
Its horrendous hide and seek game
Seems to be unsolvable, invincible.
Alas, no antivirus invented yet
In the laboratories of intelligence
That had once frozen the world,
Belittled the stage with skillful weapons
That could claim the lives of millions
At the press of an obedient button.
Look at those groups of hungry workers,
Who came from their villages
To earn a square meal for their families!
Separated for long, yearning
To be together, what would they
Know of social distancing?
The gates of cities, closed for good
Shutting their doors of livelihood.
Now they have to walk a long way
They return to their homes, empty-handed.
The civilized world is in isolation,
Wearing a mask, everyone
Is untouchable, mistrust polluting the air,
Singing in tandem a melancholic
Tune of mayhem, perhaps the exiled life
Will never find its lost kingdom again.
News of deaths screeching everywhere
As though we’re counting the scores
Of an Olympic game,
People are dropping like flies,
For the deadly virus is on the loose,
Gallivanting the globe, attacking lives
Of a pauper, a minister alike;
Science till today, doesn’t have
A vaccine, nor a clue. there is no
Ray of hope in the sky in its blue.
Sky, where once the morning sun smiled,
The evening stars twinkled,
The dew dropped to comfort the soil,
The paradise is now in peril, in turmoil.
But this too shall pass!
History will witness the deaths
Of values, the arrogance of blind success;
In time, nature will heal. The indomitable
Humankind will not accept defeat;
But alas, there will be no lessons learned,
For the same mistakes in time and space
Will it still, be condemned to repeat.
This poem is voiced for millions of people in the world, my world. That is why I asked many of my known poets to suggest newer ways of re-writing the poems. While my dear friend U Atreya Sharma, Editor-in-Chief of Muse India had suggested I change the expression 'pin-drop silence' to 'deadly silence' (as you see has been duly incorporated), I have an exceptional artist friend by the name Shubha Khandekar who has practically re-written the poem. I liked her way of writing so much that I am placing it here so readers can benefit from her exceptional way of writing. Here it is:
Mapping the Pandemic
Rambunctious
highways,
Roads, streets, by-lanes,
Numbed in widespread silence.
No ruckus, no squeak, nor wail;
Tireless Time has terminated
Its physical engagements.
Roads, streets, by-lanes,
Numbed in widespread silence.
No ruckus, no squeak, nor wail;
Tireless Time has terminated
Its physical engagements.
The overseas monster,
sipping unhurriedly
The nectar of life. The venomous virus
Grows stronger: turns the incorrigibly
Restive world inexorably impotent.
The defiant demon, invisible, invincible
Plays a ruthless hide and seek
To stay one-up, always.
The nectar of life. The venomous virus
Grows stronger: turns the incorrigibly
Restive world inexorably impotent.
The defiant demon, invisible, invincible
Plays a ruthless hide and seek
To stay one-up, always.
Labs of yore, proudly
triumphant
Having frozen the world one day
And slaughtered humanity the next,
With clever weapons, touch-n-go-buttons
Lie flaccid, prostrated, vanquished today
Devoured by their own conceit.
Having frozen the world one day
And slaughtered humanity the next,
With clever weapons, touch-n-go-buttons
Lie flaccid, prostrated, vanquished today
Devoured by their own conceit.
Miles after miles
of hungry workers,
No longer the succor of
Pregnant wives, frightened kids
Walking backward from their livelihoods
Despairing to be with their kin,
To grab at their lost roots. . .
No longer the succor of
Pregnant wives, frightened kids
Walking backward from their livelihoods
Despairing to be with their kin,
To grab at their lost roots. . .
If death be
inevitable, may it come
In the comfort of belongingness.
In the comfort of belongingness.
An alien world,
masked, quarantined
Mortified of touch, mistrustful of air,
Singing in tandem a melancholic tune
Of mayhem. Killing hopes of the exiled life
Finding its lost kingdom again.
Mortified of touch, mistrustful of air,
Singing in tandem a melancholic tune
Of mayhem. Killing hopes of the exiled life
Finding its lost kingdom again.
News of deaths
screeching from all screens
The dead are just numbers -- like the scores
Of an Olympic game. People chained
Within four walls dying while the virus goes
Gallivanting the globe: free, wild, jubilant
Egalitarian. Taking the lives of rulers
And ruled alike, sans bias leaving no clue
For hapless men of science.
The dead are just numbers -- like the scores
Of an Olympic game. People chained
Within four walls dying while the virus goes
Gallivanting the globe: free, wild, jubilant
Egalitarian. Taking the lives of rulers
And ruled alike, sans bias leaving no clue
For hapless men of science.
In the sky where
once the morning sun smiled,
The evening stars twinkled,
The dew dropped to comfort the soil --
Paradise now writhes in peril, in fear, in self-doubt.
The evening stars twinkled,
The dew dropped to comfort the soil --
Paradise now writhes in peril, in fear, in self-doubt.
But this too shall
pass!
Myriad deaths down, the anarchy will deflate
Nature, resilient and forgiving, will heal . . .
Men will survive, women bring forth, kids smile.
But will it cure humanity of its indomitable craving
For one-up-Manship?
Myriad deaths down, the anarchy will deflate
Nature, resilient and forgiving, will heal . . .
Men will survive, women bring forth, kids smile.
But will it cure humanity of its indomitable craving
For one-up-Manship?
Rewritten by Shubha Khandekar
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