Category: Poetry

Categories
Poetry

The Beeman

By Ken Allan Dronsfield

 
 
The Beeman 
 As geese slowly cruise around the edge
 of the pond, small goslings hurry to keep up.  
 The first light of the new day begins to peek
 above the horizon.
 A man with his coffee sits on the deck
 and ponders his day.
 Mists of the early morning move like tendrils
 across the water and dew twinkles in the
 green grass of the yard.
 The Beeman, donning hat and veil, slowly
 walks the path towards the apiary just as 
 a peach sunrise ignites a Georgia sky

Ken Allan Dronsfield is a prize winning poet from New Hampshire, now residing in Oklahoma. Ken loves writing, thunderstorms, coin collecting and spending time with his rescue cats, Willa and Yumpy.

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Categories
Poetry

Movement

By Anthony Wade

Starlings like iron filings flung

across the darkening sky,

slipping and slithering to the pull

of a celestial magnet,

or a black cloth wiping the sky clean

of the loss of this moving time.

Anthony Wade is Irish, legally trained in England but worked principally in The Netherlands.  He published a first poem in 2018, and a good number in several publications since.

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Categories
Poetry

Relationships to Remember

By Penny Wilkes

        

They travel through you.

Some tease and tickle brain cells or trick you unaware.

A few move in and out of the mind’s pocket.

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Others paddle and float in the bloodstream

then vacation into the heart to stay.

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A breath reveals those who flutter in the lungs.

Many from afar reside in hibiscus blossoms, a tulip or rose.

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When a tree branch brushes a hand, you’ll know who’s there.

A trickle of water or wave roll calls them to mind.

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A lemon’s scent or a phantom hand on the shoulder brings a hug of breeze 

There. Always there.

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As sun blends a spark of memory with tangerine sky,

a chuckle sounds into the sea with a flash of green.

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A rustle of wings returns those elevated to another plane.

Still they remain. There. Always there.

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Penny Wilkes served as a science editor, travel and nature writer and columnist. Along with short stories, her features on humour and animal behavior have appeared in a variety of publications. She has published an anthology of short stories, Seven Smooth Stones. Her poetry collections include: Whispers from the Land, In Spite of War, and Flying Lessons. She publishes a daily blog on The Write Life:http://penjaminswriteway.blogspot.com/.

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Categories
Poetry

Poetry in Translation

Aditya Shankar translates poetry by Krispin Joseph

Sleep

A hundred men
Unlikely to ever rise
Stands guard at the river bank
Though those buoyant feet
Would never let them float away.
The feet of the guard outlives
The primitive tribes of the river
And retreats, unsure if it is
The breast or the belly
That grazes their fingers.
To those who return from
The river, I need to enquire
About the taste of the girl
Who died yesterday.

(Urakkam, translated from Malayalam by Aditya Shankar)

Bio: Krispin is a poet, media person, editor and organizer. He has two poetry anthologies to his credit: La(R)va and Sharapova. He was the editor of an anthology of love poems for DC Books, Kerala. He has been part of the editorial team (both as team leader and sub editor) for the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) and the International Documentary and short Film Festival of Kerala (IDSFFK).

Aditya Shankar is an Indian poet, flash fiction author, and translator. His work has appeared in international journals and anthologies of repute and translated into Malayalam and Arabic. Books: After Seeing (2006), Party Poopers (2014), and XXL (Dhauli Books, 2018). He lives in Bangalore, India.

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Categories
Poetry

Across Time

Transcreations by Ratnottama Sengupta

Nabendu Ghosh, the author for who the elegy was written, and his daughter, Ratnottama Sengupta, who has transcribed these poems.
 Nabendu Ghosh : Elegy

 In the wee hours of the morning
 Nabendu Ghosh knocked on my door.
 His dishevelled appearance
 Reminds me of the Famine
 His Clarion Call* evokes--
 An awning sky,
 A busy suburb,
 A shaded glen…
 Fact is, even after Death,
 Some people knock on the door.
 Some people live on beyond life…
  
 *The Clarion Call (Daak Diye Jaai), the autobiography of Nabendu Ghosh.

(Original in Bengali By Bimal Deb)
  
 Journey...
  
 Long days have passed
 Since the path of two friends
 Branched.
 In the crowd of unknown faces
 Two eyes seek him,
 So does his heart.
 At times,
 It knocks on the door
 Of Memory.
 Time spent in togetherness
 Signals delight.
 The miles between them
 Weighs down the mind,
 The hidden flow of Time
 Ever present, never seen,
 Will it once more enjoin
 Two parted hands?
  
 (Original in Bengali: Kaushik Ghosh)
  
 Vasundhara*
  
 I have known you
 Since I crawled out
 Of my mother's lap.
 As I walked 
 Under your leafy boughs
 I launched on
 My journey with shades.
 The enchanting weave of colours -
 They grew out of you.
 My first love took roots
 As I cut through the mustard fields
 That lifted their lips
 To the blue skies.
                Not once have you let me down.
 And when the deluge came
 You it was that steeled me
 With the warmth of your womb.
                My misty vision, reaching out
 Through my thickening lenses
 Do not falter
 Do not squint.
 Age has not withered
 Nor has Time staled
 Your luminous face.
 You rule my canvas 
 As you always have
 Since I stepped out
 Of my mother's lap
 Into yours
 O Mother Earth...
  
 *Vasundhara – Earth in Bengali 
  
 (Original in Bengali by Maniklal Chatterjee)

Ratnottama Sengupta, formerly Arts Editor of The Times of India, teaches mass communication and film appreciation, curates film festivals and art exhibitions, translates and write books. She has been a member of CBFC, served on the National Film Awards jury and has herself won a National Award. 

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Categories
Poetry

A Fearful Mind

By Shraddha Arora

 
 
 
 A fearful mind
  
 I often ask myself - "Why do I fear?"
 Is it the fear to fall or is it the fear of not rising after the fall?
 It is difficult to say what I fear more, but I fear both. 
 And in this fear, 
 I am in a status quo; keeping my head low. 
 The question is how far can I go if I keep it all below?
  
 My mind battles every day. 
 Worries what people will say.
 But should I even care?
 When I know they will say it anyway? 
  
  
 It’s a phase and it shall pass.
 But if I let my fears surpass,
 I will be lost in what I am
 And may not become what I Can.

Shraddha Arora is an unpublished poet/writer. By putting words on paper, she clarifies her purpose and explores her passion.

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Categories
Poetry

One Star

By Ihlwha Choi

One Star

After losing his way
He is wandering in the strange street

I have not found the way
Which leads to him

Like his way
Like my way
Like the way we both can't find


One familiar star
Shining brightly afar in the night sky 

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Ihlwha Choi is a South Korean poet. He has published multiple poetry collections, such as Until the Time When Our Love will Flourish, The Color of Time, His Song and The Last Rehearsal. 

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Categories
Poetry

I Do Not See

By Tom Merrill

          I Do Not See
 

 I do not see the stars tonight
     Nor wonder if they shine,
 For many years have passed since I
     Wished any beauty mine.
 

 I do not seek the flowered wood's
      Unworldly hush and stir,
 Nor are there cherished haunts of mind
      As long ago there were.
 

 I find no sail to lull me now
      Away to courts of dream,
 And upward from the sod I push
      Blue skies fade out unseen.

First Published in The Hypertexts

Poems by Tom Merrill have recently appeared in two novels as epigraphs. He is Poet in Residuum at The HyperTexts and Advisory Editor at Better Than Starbucks.

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Categories
Poetry

Nature Poems

By Sangeeta Sharma

 The flying clouds
 A cloud like a roaming idler
 Dawdling reaches the highest peak 
 Envelops the mountain 
 In its folds
 Caresses and kisses causing shivers 
 In its bosom
 And lightning, thunder and showers 
 Leap over each other like wildfire
 Floats away and evaporates
 As quickly as it had formed
 Impregnating every small and large
 Womb of the earth
 With puddles of water and 
 A citric, tangy scent
 That clings to 
 The swooning wistful lasses.
  
 Hawk Cuckoo (Papeeha)
 The cuckoo’s mellifluous song
 Excites the maiden
 Who drops the work in hand
 Sprints into the open
 With a joyous heart 
 Looks up towards the cloudy sky
 As expectantly 
 As the cuckoo who sits with its beak ajar
 At the topmost bough of the mango tree
 Half-concealed, longing for the first drop of rain.
 Like a clarion call -- the refrain
 Ignites the pining heart
 Of the lass 
 For her sweetheart
 Who has been away so long
 And has promised to return 
 With the first shower of the monsoon!

Dr. Sangeeta Sharma, a senior academic, is a widely-published critic, poet and writer. She has authored a book on Arthur Miller (2012) and an anthology of 76 poems (2017). She has jointly edited five anthologies on poetry, fiction and criticism and two workbooks on Communication. A free-lance journalist, she is also a Ph.D guide appointed by the University of Mumbai. One of her books is listed as a reference in the department of English, Clayton State University, USA.

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Categories
Poetry

Book Writing Contest

By Vatsala Radhakeesoon


 
 Book Writing Contest
 
 During the time when the dinosaurs roamed freely,
 Smiling Sun had a sunflower mic (microphone).
 On one tropical summer morning, 
 it announced a book writing contest
 open to all visitors and residents
 of Above-Ground.
 
 Flying Dragon sent his Book of Fierce Fire,
 Red Birds submitted their Anthology of Wavering Winds,
 Water Bearer (Aquarius) flew his Book of Lofty Lyrics
 attached to an airy string;
 However, when Sky submitted his book, 
 it slipped like sand amidst Sun’s fingers.
 
 Smiling Sun requested Sky to re-submit his work,
 Days went by but nothing was heard from him.
 
 As a matter of principle, where Fairness ruled
 each participant received an award
 and when Sun glanced at Sky and frowned,
 above the clouds, shone Sky’s Book of Ha-Ha – 
 a humorous musical book that sang,
 “Catch the blue, catch the blue.
 Sun, I wrap you within me.
 Here’s a golden flower for you.
 Please wear it as a ring,
 It will strengthen your grin.”
 
 Smiling Sun beamed and hugged Sky,
 It promised him never to doubt his deeds,
 And together for eternity they would live.

Vatsala Radhakeesoon is an author/poet and artist from Mauritius. She has had numerous poetry books published and she is currently working on her flash fiction/short stories book. She considers poetry as her first love and visual art as a healer in all circumstances. Vatsala Radhakeesoon currently lives at Rose-Hill, Mauritius and is a freelance literary translator and an interview editor of Asian Signature journal.

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