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…
Poetry
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…
The Curses of Patriarchy
Patriarchy cursed me, I laughed and move on They said you are a female, your birth is a burden I survived and thrived, flourished and bloomed Confronted their stereotypes and…
For M.M. 1992/2022
Stretching into love again After a hiatus of years Lips need old lips To see past new tears Our hands hung In Time's hammock Patiently waiting For a rose Moon…
Democracy
All the chicken heads Are hung against the wall And in invisible velvet rooms Choice chokes on power And the stupid dance Of commanded wraiths Processes its time Declares victors'…
You are not a great poet
You are not a great poet The swan does not stir No flower bends No mouth opens for more breath The universe remains steadily in place All the clocks tick…
Death of the Moth: A Requiem
[Dedicated to the fiery, undying spirit of the phenomenal modernist author Virginia Woolf (January 25, 1882-March 28, 1941)] ‘They are hybrid creatures, neither gay like butterflies nor somber like their…
To Anjali
You are not just a name on the ballot. You are more than that. A flowing stream. A shady tree. A roaring ocean. A breeze of fresh air. The song…
Against the Adanis and Ambanis of the world
I've seen the faces of those who work for you Your money is made on the backs you broke Of their blood, sweat, and tears And cheap labour I have…
The AGE of FLOWERS
I am of flowers. I came out from the butterfly. I came out from the bee, the dancing bee – the hummingbird’s feathered breast. Once upon a time, a…
Singing in the Shadows
Do they have a choice — all these unfledged young hands that crumble under the weight of guns— not to fight a war that is not theirs? Could his…
Ode to myself
Looking inward Found arrows Shot to forestall my growth. Trying to dismantle the chain, Threw back the arrows, Culminating in a painful war, Where the loved one Stood amidst. Looking…
Trauma
House: house made of wood is on fire. Fiery winds blow our ashes away. Burning forests and the grasslands. House: house made of clay. Raging waters wash towns away.…
September is the Cruelest Month,Babu
September is the cruelest month, babu We are daily labourers We are kiln workers We are domestic maids We are casual agricultural hands It is a lean season, babu And…
#Let’sRaiseHell
On the day India was born eleven demons were let loose. A great celebration ensued Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah! India won the match again! The match is always fixed. A man…
India
My head, the Kanchanjodga, aches. My eyes shed tears as Yamuna Washing the feet of the Taj. Satpura, my chest, chokes. The saline breeze of Point Calimere Brings murmurs of…
How easy it is to be a patriot
How easy it is to be a patriot All I need is a pic of a flag and a frame given free on FB and when I go out to…
Ideas
Ideas are hard to curb even if voices are silenced. Ideas will float in the air, waft on a sunbeam till they embed themselves in more minds. Ideas will…
To Leena Manimekalai
In a very holy land In a very pious place One hundred thirty crore people live Sensitive, religious, courageous and non-sensuous. We get hurt And rightly so When a polymorph…
Happy B-Day USA
I love my children. I love my grandchildren. And have deep concern for the youth of the Earth. Who and what do you love? What we value defines who we…
Some pious deeds
While razing the house of a Muslim family and setting them on fire with kerosene the man was thinking of the Buddhist monastery he planned to visit in Bhutan. It…
In The Name Of Hate
Enough Enough is enough Now mourn that we have killed our Prophet's Words. Isn't the Prophet an epitome of love? Hang your neck in shame You have lost both worlds.…
For Teesta Setalvad
You are Teesta What does it matter You have been born in Sikkim Or in Gujarat! From the rush of your flow hope takes birth from your magnanimity a thousand…
The Sanctity of Life?
A victory For life’s sanctity? But not for the living. Black Lives were not sacred Gun-dead children neither Hungry kids- -freeloaders War-dead deserved it Snowflakes if seeking help Desperate mothers…
In front of the firing squad
I watch you from afar, you stand with your back against a wall, and a firing squad in the front! The first shot is fired… ...but no instant death, It…
For Afreen Fatima
I can see your ribs cracking and the bones bleeding within. Your eyes are numb tears frozen. I can see your hands shaking your legs heavy. Your heart is pounding…
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