Population Reduction in Not India
Two Hundred Million Dalits Are not India Two Hundred Million Muslims Are not India One Hundred Million Adivasis Are not India One Hundred Twenty Million Farmers Are not India Secularists…
Poetry
The Death Of The Heroes
"We have been made to be heroes for a while – but I know ultimately that will not change our condition.” Wakeel Hassan* We celebrate our heroesAs we possess our…
Palestine – A poem by Gorakh Pandey
The cultural hub of Delhiis located at Mandi House. I occasionally have lunch there (costing Rs. 50/-) at a popular kiosk. Progressive artists put up posters all over the place.…
The Power of Poetry to Move Us to Love in Times of Human Cruelty
San Francisco’s third poet laureate, devorah major, speaks on Palestine and how poetry can help us connect as we navigate the violence of our world. Near the end of November…
Losing Touch
The President has lost his marbles!They crouch behind the pillows of his brain,Waiting, coiling for the perfect momentTo strike! Or… slink away,Fluttering in the gasping world….The Lady-in-Waiting is likewise befuddled;She…
How Do You Sleep, Mr. President?
Do you take your Catholic upbringing to bedand rest a rosary by your head?Are you a prayerful man, Mr. President?Do you pray for peace in the Promised Landand imagine the…
Palestine is Rising
Malice is blooming, Truth is fadingDisbelief is growing, Trust is buryingSmoke is brewing, Darkness is glowingWar is raging, Peace is breakingBombs are falling, Babies are crushingMothers are screaming, Fathers are…
Oh the children of Gaza……………………..!
Oh the children of Gaza! You are in so much of painYou cry and your innocent blood flows down the holy laneSome among you have born only a few months…
If You Could Speak…
Little face in the rubble!If you could speakFrom your midget-coffin,If your sweet voice could carry throughYour little mouth-Cavernous and hollowed out by death,Encrusted with old blood,Stopped in its tracks between…
The blessed land of Palestine
We were the little angels hovering in the skyline.Came from that blessed land of Palestine. Watching over the trail of shooting missiles.Those shattering over the innocent lives & smiles. We…
The Lidice Ratio
One to One HundredEven more at timesBut the OneIs the Only Focus One Hundred is a statisticOne Hundred heartsMinds, SoulsThousands of lovers A Pauper concedesA Billionaire succeedsIt might be timeTo…
GAZACIDE
World’s largest concentration camp,Gaza’s two million suffering soulsall bear oppression’s brutal stamp,sad state, which Israel extols. That strip of ancient Palestinewas British Empire-occupieduntil Brit World War Two decline,when Zionism from…
Because
Hey diddle diddleThe cat and the fiddleThe cow jumped over the moonBecause; Palestine is where Zionist babiesRepopulate the olive groves stolenFrom Palestinians who once upon a timeBelieved that in a…
Palestine O Palestine
I see no logic, I see no gains, I see no sides, I see no one surviveI see smoke, I see ruins, I see death, I see misery, I see…
Jewish Diaspora – Speak Up For Palestinians
“When crime becomes authorityAnd hunts down people branding them criminalsEveryone with a voice and keeps silentBecomes criminal himself.” (Poet Varavara Rao) About time middle class JewsSpread across the worldBreak their…
Astonishing The Enemy –for the peace-makers
About Mr. X, we needn't be too kind.He was never one of us, but ratherOdd, the way he urged we keep an open mindAbout things we'd already made our minds…
Skyless In Gaza
Ad Astra, they sayShoot for the moonSunlight, they sayHeals all wounds What happens?When the sun isn't thereWhen the stars eludeWhen the moon hides? And what happensTo your soulWhen you discoverThat…
14 October 2023 – A Poem
In the city I live, no one drops any bombs.Fighter jets don’t deafen; sirens don’t wail.Houses, with people, don’t turn into rubble in an instant.Bewildered souls of the newly exploded…
Breadcrumb
For millennia Truth was the supreme task Beauty was mere consequence But what if the first is impossible? Should we, therefore, discard the second? Beauty is felt not proven It…
Tolstoy’s Dilemma
Art It is the tiny pink rose Behind the ear of God I place mine there Not because I rage against death I a short interval between the not yet…
Remember Lahaina
Those with holes instead of eyes do not see. They are blind. Those with holes instead of ears do not hear. They are deaf. Emotionally numb devoid…
My Yellowed Loves
Yellowed loves Come The punctured gutters of God Open The veins of silent gold In the lazy mouths of mocking youth Fountains overflowing with first sun A flock of oaths…
Pain
Pain contracts to a Nation when they stripshow somebody's daughter, wife and mother walk them down the streets and go home to meet their women in their eyes and shut…
Warrior’s Choice
Within discipline to become: an eco-person within an eco-person soul within soul humility within humility courage within courage empathy within empathy fire within fire dignity within the prayer of dignity…
Lullaby
Lullaby- A song by Akhu Chingangbam. Akhu Chingangbam is a famous musician from #Manipur. He has shared this song about the crisis in his state.
An ode to embodied resistance
She sits by the river bearing the scars of a lifetime, Each scar reminding her of a struggle that she now embodies. She knew she has intuition and empathy that…
Dependence Day
July 4th, we call “Independence Day.” Each day, in fact, is our dependence day. We need the other creatures of the Earth, beginning with the first day of our birth.…
Resistance
It is in this way that the rebel…says yes and no simultaneously. Albert Camus, The Rebel No nukes and no thermobaric weapons no unregulated AI no child pornography no…
And We Are Much More Than Our Uterus. (In Solidarity With the protesting wrestlers)
Don't cry. Pity this nation which knows about your medals not your pains and wounds. They clip your wings and celebrate your blood spilled journey with sugar-coated smiles. Words are…
Now I Am Ravana’s Head
My first reaction to the book that Rajiv Malhotra, from America, published on Romila Thapar, Irfan Habib, Shashi Tharoor, Ramachandra Guha, Sheldon Pollock, Wendy Doniger, Devdutt Pattanaik, Kancha Ilaiah, Audrey…
The Day Arrived
The day (once more) when the world as we know it stopped the Doomsday Clock, barely in the nick of time, stood still the power of political death over individual…
Harry- My Heart is Down, Lost in Kingston town
Tribute to Harry Belafonte- A true giant, a voice for the voiceless, who walked here in my lifetime Your life, every aspect of it, was like the mythical Philosopher’s Stone-…
Reconciliations….
Indian Grandala birds, perched on thin, gray branches, against a gray-green background-sky-- something like a mountainside; male and female, one supposes, wondering what songs they make, what harmonies their colors…
Edward Abbey
Edward Abbey park ranger desert solitary author – avatar of beautiful traumatized Earth wrote to us with a pine needle with tip of the tail of a gopher snake, “there…
The Me of Me
1. I went searching for the me of me! Who is it? What is it? How will I know? Is it unchangeable—a hyper-essence? If I found it, would I…
Lament of the Yellow Rose
I am a yellow rose lovingly cared for by an old man Who planted me in his garden I am in full bloom now but he doesn’t come to admire…
“…I want poetry to be detonated like a bomb!” -Nathalie Quintane
Nathalie Quintane is among the most known experimental poets of France. To quote her from what she writes about herself in the French government’s publications website, this is what she…
“Mother’s Day”
In honor of International Women’s Day, March 8, 2023 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx1OeZgaXOw If we could see a Mother’s Day All around the world, Where mothers lived a day of joy, Where mothers…
1963: death of a poet
It is 1963, I am recording live the last moments of Sylvia’s life. She invites me as she doesn’t understand livecast. “Have a cake” she says, “Baked in my…
February: The Month of Deaths
1 18th February 1983 Thanks to God(?) History doesn't stink. Or else it could have still stinking the flesh, dust and blood of that six hours - the insane hours…
Poetry needs to be recited, not just read
A poet in Russia is more than a poet," Yevgeny Yevtushenko, a leading author of his time, famously stated. He knew what he was talking about. During Nikita Khrushchev's cultural…
LA VIE EN ROSE
They wanted love. The young. The desire was inside them. A candle in the night. A match in a bedroom of fireworks. They wanted to tumble in pairs into…
Lay Red Roses
February, the month of love, is now coloured by incarnadined cries from battlegrounds. Irrawaddy has turned red. Dneiper weeps ashes and blood. Yet, red roses will distribute love bought…
Sarcasm
nothing is more important than the colour of a bikini nothing is more important than to be against 'love jihad' supposedly being represented on screen nothing is more important than…
Farha
The woman who viewed my life on-screen, said, she cried in class retelling it. She asked me, have I at any time smiled thereafter ! She is from India. On…
Dinner Guest
Death Sits at the dinner table with me He has Impeccable manners Never touches anything Never talks out of turn Truly A somewhat amiable chap Except He has the nasty…
Arrival
I searched long for You In the infinite fields Of Being I followed the myth Of your laughter I composed What I thought Was the heart Of Your Song I…
HE STANDS on the ROCK
He stands on the Rock the beautiful rock beside the flourishing Tree of Life. He stands on the Rock on the beautiful rock beside the flowing river of light.…
In Memory of Harold Bloom
How shall I climb When the ladder Is not mine? How shall I reach Thine ear When such is not my speech? How shall I engender Words When diction, close,…
First Love
[My tribute to the immortal love poems of my favorite poet of Bengal, Sunil Gangopadhyay.] My first love was a foggy blur Over my familiar world of twenty springs. He…
Dark Mystery
The Flesh on the Cross It is a great meditation It is a great Truth Of the World The nails of our traitors Slowly bore into us As we call…
The Anti-Caste Pen Force
One who practices caste is a devil That devil has to be driven out of India India must be made a country of equality. The tiller must sow the letters…
Papillon
They chained you Made you know Inside and out What it is like To be rock They taught you The secret hardnesses of time The Gorgon Face Of the clock…
Las Vegas
The Gangsters were all waiting for me Their uninvited guest Their cigarettes were all lighted Their black ties were all straight I owed them without knowing And now had to…
Poise
Young with the wisdom Of an elder Unfair. No childhood. That’s your life Not allowed ever To be angry Not allowed to raise Your hands Smile through it…
In Memory of Leonard Cohen
Do you think that love is waiting Do you think that someone's there There are only the hounds retreating There is only a ghost going up the stairs Now all…
Eternal Command
Stand at attention All you dogs And make fire for me Do not take the white branches From under the sea Leave me the Winter's song On my tired breast…
No Poet
I'm not really a poet I'm anti-gravity I'm stale mashed potatoes and gravy I'm what's left out After your last pay check I'm the last words your wife says Before…
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